Wael Zwaiter

Who was Wael Zwaiter?

Wael Zwaiter was a Palestinian translator assassinated as the first target of Israel's Operation Wrath of God campaign following the 1972 Munich massacre. Israel considered Zwaiter a terrorist for his role in the Black September group, while his supporters argue that he was "never conclusively linked" with Black September or the Munich massacre and was killed in retribution.

Zwaiter was born in Nablus in the mid-1930s as son of Adel Zu`aiter. He went to Iraq and studied Arabic literature and philosophy at the University of Baghdad. Zwaiter moved then to Libya and afterwards to Rome, where he was a PLO representative and worked as a translator for the Libyan embassy. In addition to his native Arabic, Zwaiter spoke French, Italian, and English. During his time in Italy, Zwaiter was in the process of translating One Thousand and One Nights from Arabic into Italian, but according to Emily Jacir, he never completed this and to date there is no direct translation from Arabic to Italian.

Zwaiter was held for questioning by Italian police in August 1972 in relation to a bombing by the group Black September against an oil refinery, but was later released. The Israeli Mossad suspected him of being the head of Black September in Rome, and put him on an assassination list after Black September's attack in Munich. When he returned to his apartment building on the night of October 16, 1972, he was shot 11 times by two Israeli agents, killing him.