SARTAWI, ISSAM (1934–1983)

Palestinian political leader, born in January 1934 in Acre; died in 1983. Issam Sartawi and his family left Palestine in 1948, at the time of the first Arab-Israel War, to seek refuge in Iraq. He undertook a course of studies in medicine in the United States, choosing cardiology as a specialty. Following the Arab defeat of June 1967, he decided to join the Palestinian resistance, within which he became head of the Active Organization for the Liberation of Palestine (AOLP). Banished from Jordan after the events of Black September 1970, he sought refuge in Beirut, where he became acquainted with a small group of Palestinians that favored making contact with Israelis to resolve the Palestinian question. Among the group were Mahmud Abbas and Said Hamami. In July 1971 Sartawi decided to join al-Fatah. During the summer of 1976, in France, he participated in a number of secret meetings with Israelis who were in favor of an Israeli-Palestinian peace. On 4 January 1978, the assassination of Hamami by an Israeli commando in London strengthened him in his resolve to start negotiations with Israel.

The following May, through the mediation of the Swedish deputy to the Socialist International, he was able to meet with the Austrian chancellor, Bruno Kreisky. From then on, Sartawi traveled frequently to Vienna, where he encountered various Western political figures, arguing the Palestinian cause before them. In July 1979, in the company of Yasir Arafat, he was received by the president of the Socialist International, former West German chancellor Willy Brandt, and by Chancellor Kreisky. On 19 October 1979, at Vienna, he and the Israeli Aryeh Eliav were awarded the Peace Prize of the Kreisky Foundation, in honor of the risks they took to "further reconciliation between their two peoples." Between 1978 and 1982, Sartawi increased his efforts to try to get official Israeli-Palestinian negotiations started, prompting the anger of diverse radical currents, both Israeli and Palestinian. On 15 January 1983, in Tunis, he organized a meeting between Arafat and three Israelis: "Matti" Peled, Uri Avnery, and Yaacov Arnon. This meeting caused a wave of protests in Israel as well as among the Palestinians. On 10 April 1983, he was killed by a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council of Abu Nidal during a preliminary meeting for the congress of the Socialist International, which was to take place in Portugal.

SEE ALSO Arafat, Yasir;Black September 1970;Fatah, al-;Fatah Revolutionary Council.