Banna, Sabri al (1937–2002)

Sabri al Banna, known to the world as Abu Nidal, was a terrorist mastermind whose various organizations have been responsible for an estimated 900 deaths.

Born in 1937 in the town of Jaffa, in what was then British-ruled Palestine, Banna's early years were spent in luxury. His father, Ibrihim al Banna, owned a fruit exporting business that made him one of the richest men in the country. His 18 children and several wives wanted for nothing. When Banna was nine, his father died, and the family was left in difficult financial straits, partly because of the political turmoil in the Middle East. In 1948 the Banna family was forced to flee Jaffa and the advancing Israeli army. For more than a year, they were destitute refugees, and this year of living in poverty and humiliation shaped the young Banna's worldview. In 1949 the Banna family resettled in Nablus, on the west bank of the Jordan River.

Banna's first political involvement occurred while attending college in Cairo in the mid-1950s, when he joined the Baath Party, a socialist pan-Arab and anticolonialist group whose ideas would influence his political views. In 1957, after a brief stint as a teacher, Banna moved to Saudi Arabia to work as an electrical engineer. There he joined Fatah, the organization begun by Yasir Arafat to win back Palestine from the Israelis. In 1964 Fatah united with other Palestinian groups to form the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Over the next decade, Banna rose within the PLO, becoming part of Arafat's inner circle, and acquiring Abu Nidal (“father of struggle”) as a nom de guerre. In 1969 Banna was sent to Sudan to recruit for Fatah. He spent little more than a year there before being reassigned to Baghdad, which in 1970 was dominated by the Baath Party and led by Saddam Hussein.

Banna's years in Iraq and his re-immersion in Baathist ideology led to a rupture between him and Fatah leaders. Fatah and the PLO espoused a form of Palestinian nationalism that, although dependent on aid from other Arab nations, was dedicated to creating an independent Palestinian state. Banna subscribed to the Baathist belief that the boundaries between contemporary Arab states were arbitrary legacies of colonialism, and that the eventual unification of all Arab peoples in a single nation-state was the necessary and desirable way for the Arabs to assume a position of world power. Accordingly, Israel, having been imposed upon the Arabs by the West, was an obstacle to Arab unity and must be eliminated. The existence of Israel also offered an opportunity to forge Arab unity through fighting this common enemy. To Banna, the fight for the liberation of Palestine was the cornerstone in creating an Arab world power; any move from armed struggle toward political accommodation placed this goal in jeopardy, anyone who dared make such accommodations was as much his enemy as the Israelis.

In the early 1970s, Arafat began to downplay Fatah's terrorism and maneuver for political recognition; his 1974 address to the United Nations was a major step in legitimizing him on the world's stage. Banna protested strenuously, causing Fatah's leadership to question his loyalty. In 1974 Banna left the organization. Using his Iraqi base, he began forming a new terrorist group, which has operated under several names but is most widely known as the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO). In November 1974, the PLO sentenced him to death in absentia. Several commentators have suggested that the death sentence was decided on after the discovery of a plot to assassinate Arafat.

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