The 1970s were years when the Palestinian struggle for freedom was fought not just in refugee camps or Middle Eastern cities, but also in the cafés, apartments, and quiet streets of Europe. Pens and books became weapons, but so did bombs and pistols. Israel’s Mossad went on a campaign to eliminate Palestinian intellectuals. At the same time, Palestinian factions carried out targeted killings of Israeli officials and Jewish citizens abroad.
Both sides crossed moral lines. And Europe, the continent where most of these killings took place, too often looked the other way.
Mossad’s Campaign of Assassinations
Between 1972 and 1981, Mossad eliminated prominent Palestinian figures—poets, novelists, diplomats.
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Ghassan Kanafani, the novelist and PFLP spokesman, killed by a car bomb in Beirut (1972).
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Wael Zwaiter, the translator in Rome, shot 12 times in his apartment building (1972).
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Kamal Nasser, poet and PLO spokesperson, gunned down in his Beirut home (1973).
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Ezzedine Kalak, PLO representative in Paris, killed in his office (1978).
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Naim Khader, PLO representative in Brussels, shot outside his home (1981).
None of these men carried weapons. Their crime was shaping the intellectual and diplomatic face of Palestinian resistance. By silencing them, Israel hoped to weaken the movement. The morality of this is deeply troubling: executing people for ideas rather than crimes.
The Munich Massacre and Palestinian Violence in Europe
But the picture was not one-sided. In September 1972, members of Black September, a Palestinian faction linked to Fatah, stormed the Olympic village in Munich, taking Israeli athletes hostage. Eleven Israelis and one German policeman were killed.
Other attacks followed:
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Israeli diplomat Ami Shachori assassinated in Brussels (1972).
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Attacks at Orly Airport in Paris in the late 1970s by Palestinian militants.
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Assassinations of Israeli embassy staff in Europe.
These acts, too, crossed the line of morality and ethics. They targeted civilians, athletes, and diplomats—people who were not carrying guns in a war zone but living abroad.
Europe’s Deadly Neutrality
The question that still hangs heavy: why did European governments allow this shadow war to play out on their streets?
European capitals became hunting grounds. Mossad agents slipped in and out, planting bombs and carrying silenced pistols. Palestinian factions established safe houses, built networks, and struck targets they considered legitimate.
Governments often looked away, unwilling to confront Israel or the Palestinians head-on. Some feared being dragged into Middle Eastern conflicts. Others feared terrorist reprisals if they cracked down too hard. The Cold War further complicated things—Palestinian groups had backing from Soviet-aligned states, while Israel was a close ally of the U.S.
The result was a grim silence. Ordinary Europeans paid the price when shootouts and bombings spilled into airports, train stations, and apartment blocks.
The Moral Lesson
The assassination of intellectuals is as indefensible as the massacre of Olympic athletes. Both acts robbed innocent people of their lives and dignity. Both betrayed the principles of justice and human rights.
And Europe’s failure to prevent or prosecute many of these crimes made it complicit. By hosting the struggle but refusing to police it, European capitals became stages for a war that should never have left the Middle East.
History remembers Kanafani’s books and Kamal Nasser’s poetry. It also remembers the image of athletes killed in Munich. What unites these memories is the simple truth: when states and movements embrace assassination, they kill not only people but also the possibility of peace
