Wadie Haddad (1927-28 March 1978) was the leader of the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who organized several aircraft hijackings in the 1960s and 1970s.
Biography[]
Wadie Haddad was born in 1927 in Safed, Mandatory Palestine, in the United Kingdom (present-day northern Israel) to a Greek Orthodox Palestinian family. During the Israeli War of Independence, his home was destroyed. He studied medicine at the American University of Beirut, where he met fellow Christian Palestinian medicinal student George Habash. Together, they created the Arab Nationalist Movement (ANM), a pan-Arabist socialist group aiming to unite the Arab countries and create the state of Palestine. After the Six-Day War of 1967, the ANM became the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and Haddad became the leader of the military wing. He was responsible for the Dawson's Field hijackings in 1970, but as this was responsible for the Black September war between Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), he was criticized. In 1973 he was expelled from the PFLP for continuing attacks on outside targets, so he created the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - External Operations (PFLP-EO). He trained Carlos the Jackal in the PFLP but expelled him after he stole the ransom money in the 1975 OPEC siege in Vienna and refused to kill two hostages. Haddad organized the 1976 hijacking of an Air France plane, leading to Operation Entebbe by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and the killing of many PFLP members.
On 28 March 1978, Haddad died in East Germany. Israel's Mossad sent the chocolate-loving Haddad a box of poisoned chocolates with undetectable poison, and it took him months to die. PFLP-EO dissolved after his death, but the May 15 Organization and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - Special Command (PFLP-SC) succeeded it.