Nimr Al-Khatib

Muhammad Nimr al-Khatib ( ar, محمد نمر الخَطيب (1918 – 15 November 2010) was a Palestinian leader and pro-Husayni head of the Arab Higher Committee in Haifa during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine. He founded an Islamic society called ''Jam‘iyyat al-I‘tisam'' in 1941. Khatib's family held the mufti-ship of Haifa during Ottoman rule.

Khatib was targeted for assassination by the Haganah, as part of Operation Zarzir, on 19 February 1948. Two Shahar agents fired 32 bullets at a taxi in which he was traveling north of Haifa on a return journey from Damascus. He was hit by one bullet in the lung and three in the left shoulder. Isaac Shoshan had been instructed to "run back and appear to be helping, but actually to make sure the sheikh was dead, and if not, to finish the job off with my handgun". However, British soldiers prevented Shoshan from reaching the car. One passenger died and one other was wounded in the attack. Al-Khatib remained outside of Palestine for the rest of the war. Black, Ian (1992). ''Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services''. Grove Press.

Khatib was the author of a notable account of the 1948 War entitled ''The Events of the Disaster'' (''Min Athar al-Nakba''). Khatib was the first writer to note the Tantura massacre. Pappé, Ilan; ''The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine'', p. 137.

References

External links

Nimr al-Khatib's obituary

1918 births
2010 deaths
Palestinian people of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
Palestinian Sunni Muslims
Palestinian non-fiction writers
Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood members

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