My encounter with the PLO

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

The PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) was founded in 1964, and its original intent was to establish a Palestinian State over the entire lands of the former British Mandate, which includes Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.  

However, in 1993, the PLO recognized Israeli sovereignty when it signed the Oslo Accords whereby it recognized the state of Israel and only sought statehood for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.  

The PLO has had observer status with the UN since 1974. On Oct. 29, 2018, the PLO Central Council suspended Palestinian recognition of Israel and then halted all forms of cooperation with Israel.

In December of 1987, I accepted the position as executive vice president, Jaakko Pöyry, in Raleigh, N.C. My first assignment was to move to Helsinki, Finland, the home office of the company, for training for six months. So, in January of 1988, my family and I packed up and moved to Helsinki, a time of year when the sun comes up about 10:30 in the morning and goes down about 2:30 p.m. My wife thought I was crazy; my daughter Elaine, then in the fourth grade, thought it was a great adventure (and so did I, the kid from Marshall!).

My daughter was enrolled in the International School of Helsinki, all the way on the other side of the city from our apartment. No problem, her tuition and her transportation, by taxi, was in my employment package.

In those days, long before the Internet, if you were English-speaking in Helsinki, you were starved for the companionship of others of like language. I read the entire three-foot-long shelf of English books in our local library. Wednesday nights we went to the U.S. Embassy for pizza night, where all U.S. citizens were welcome. On Saturday mornings, I went to the main Helsinki train station and bought every U.S. magazine and newspaper that had come in that week. I learned to really enjoy “Good Housekeeping” that winter.  

Telephone calls back to the states were $5 per minute.

This was before the breakup of the Soviet Union, and nearly every country had an embassy in Helsinki. Helsinki was something of a window into the Soviet Union as it was only eight hours by car to Moscow. Moscow embassies often had materials sent to their Helsinki counterparts and then driven to Moscow in “diplomatic pouches.” 

Around the world, ambassadors’ children nearly all learn English because in nearly every major capital there is an “International School,” which is conducted in English according to the British teaching method. So, for the first and only time in my life, I got involved in the Parent Teachers Association.  

My family and I regularly attended their meetings because, you guessed it, everyone there spoke English. Additionally, it was quite an interesting and diverse group of people.

At our first PTA meeting, I met Mr. al-Wazir and his wife. Their daughter and Elaine, both in the fourth grade, became good friends. Mr. al-Wazir and I got so we sought each other out at PTA meetings. He was the PLO ambassador to Finland. You would not want to meet a more friendly and polite person.  

After a meeting or two, he told me he liked to talk to me, because I was not in the ambassador ranks, and he did not have to have his guard up all the time with me as he did with them. Over time, we talked about many things. He taught me that the PLO had the practice of keeping ambassadors in the same station for a long time, unlike other countries that move them around every few years.  

There was a method to this madness: The senior ambassador in a city traditionally welcomes all new ambassadors and often hosts welcoming parties for them. By becoming the senior ambassador in the city, the PLO ambassador became the default host for such gatherings, thus spreading their influence.

Our kids got along great, and I know Mr. al-Wazir captured us all on his home video camera at various times. He and his family were just what you would want to live next door to you.

In early April, I had to return to the states for some company business. This had all been pre-planned, with my family staying in Helsinki until the end of the school year. The plan was I would return back to Helsinki in mid-May to finish out the school year and accompany them home.

Phone calls from the U.S. to Helsinki were much more reasonable, and I called my family every couple of days while in the states. On one call, my wife told me Mr. al-Wazir and his family had suddenly left on a family emergency.  

The reason? Mr. al-Wazir’s brother was Khalil al-Wazir. An Israeli commando raid had assassinated him in his home in Tunis early on the morning of April 16, 1988. Khalil al-Wazir had been instrumental in initiating the first Intifada.

The assassination had been well planned out. You can read about it on Wikipedia and in books such as “Rise and Kill First” by Ronen Bergeman.

Sometimes I wonder what happened to the al-Wazir family and their daughter, who would be 45 now.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press. He may be reached at jthompson@taii.com.