Zuhayr Muhsin

1936 - 1979

Palestinian politician and guerrilla leader.

Born in Tulkarm in mandatory Palestine, Zuhayr Muhsin joined the Baʿth party at age seventeen and later became a teacher in Jordan. He was accused in 1957 of pro-Nasser subversion, and left to live briefly in Qatar and Kuwait, before finally settling in Damascus, Syria. In 1970, he became leader of Saʿiqa (Thunderbolt), the Syrian Baʿth party's Palestinian guerrilla organization. The following year, he was appointed to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee as Saʿiqa's representative. Later, he became head of the PLO's military department.

Muhsin is believed to have led a battalion that attacked the Lebanese town of Damur in January 1976, where 582 people were killed. Saʿiqa also played a role in defending the Tal al-Zaʿtar Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon under siege by the Phalange the following summer. At the 1977 Palestinian National Council meeting, Muhsin argued against partial, negotiated settlements on the Palestine question. He was assassinated by an unknown assailant on 15 July 1979 on a street in Cannes, France.

Bibliography

Cobban, Helena. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation: People,Power, and Politics. Cambridge, U.K., and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Seale, Patrick. Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire. New York: Random House, 1992.

— ELIZABETH THOMPSON