Palestinian Guerrillas Vow To Avenge Kanafani Killing

The Associated Press, Beirut

Transcribed from the clipping

“BEIRUT (AP) — Palestinian guerrilla groups here vowed Sunday to avenge the killing of Ghassan Kanafani by dealing ‘ruthless blows’ at the Israelis. In Tel Aviv, Israeli authorities denied involvement in the death of the Arab guerrilla official in his booby-trapped car. They claimed the killing was linked to the mailing of ‘parcels containing bombs to personalities in Israel and abroad.’ Kanafani, 36, was a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — PFLP — and editor of the leftist magazine Al Hadaf. He was killed Saturday by a bomb explosion when he started his car. The funeral is scheduled for Monday afternoon. Beirut newspapers bannered such headlines as ‘Israel Did It,’ and ‘Zionist and Imperialist Agents Killed Kanafani.’ The PFLP issued a statement saying, ‘Our revenge this time will be proportionate to our bereavement…Our reply to the enemy will be most ruthless and most painful.’ The Palestinian news agency WAFA claimed investigators at the scene of the explosion had found a slip of paper bearing an image of the Israeli Menorah candelabrum and another reading, in English: ‘With the compliments of the Israeli Embassy in Copenhagen.’ A police spokesman in Tel Aviv said the slips did not prove Israeli involvement. He observed that Kanafani was married to a Danish woman, and it could have been easy to obtain a slip from the embassy there. He said Israeli law agencies had warned last week of a possible renewed spate of mailed bombs similar to those of last December. The Israeli press called Kanafani’s death ‘an outcome of his own deeds,’ and denied Israeli involvement. But Yasir Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization said: ‘We must be fully alert against Zionist criminal conspiracies aimed at destroying our very existence.’… The Lebanese government said it was investigating the assassination.”

Context added by this archive

The seventh American printing of this killing held here, and the seventh headline. One of the seven called him an artist. This version, like the two United Press ones, gives his occupation as spokesman and editor and does not mention that he wrote novels. It is the only one that carries the slip of paper the Palestinian news agency said was found at the scene, printed in English with the compliments of an embassy, and the Israeli press describing his death as an outcome of his own deeds.

Cite this item

"Palestinian Guerrillas Vow To Avenge Kanafani Killing," Daytona Beach Morning Journal, 10 July 1972. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1972-010. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1972-010

Elsewhere in the archive

Artist Seeking Mideast TogethernessThe Daily Progress · 3 May 1972 · the same year
Arab Militant Leader Dies In Car ExplosionJacksonville Journal · 8 July 1972 · the same year
Israel Accused in Assassination BlastThe Flint Journal · 9 July 1972 · the same year

This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1812 to 2022. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.

The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the wire service that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. The city is derived from the masthead, not read off the clipping.

Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1972-010.

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