โœˆ๏ธ Teresa Halasa, a Jordanian Legend๏ƒ

A plane carrying 140 Israelis was hijacked. Who is Teresa Halasa, who almost killed Netanyahu?

Little did the girl who joined the armed struggle in the ranks of the Palestine Liberation Organization at the age of seventeen know that she would one day be an icon of struggle and redemption against the Israelis and that she would be the woman who one day nearly killed the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It is the Jordanian fighter Teresa Halasa, who passed away on March 28, 2020, at the age of 66, in the Jordanian capital, Amman, after a struggle with a terminal illness.

teresa

Teresa Halasa, or as some call her Teresa, was born in the old town of Akka, northern Palestine, to a Christian Jordanian family, and she is the third among her brothers.

Her father came to Palestine in 1946 from the city of Karak, and her mother is Palestinian Nadia Hanna, who was born in the village of Rama (Akka) in Upper Galilee.

Teresa completed her secondary education at the Terrassa National School in Akka, and then completed her studies in the field of nursing at the English Hospital in Nazareth.

Teresa Halsaโ€™s world struggle career began in 1971 when she decided to join the armed struggle in the ranks of the Palestine Liberation Organization, one year after the events in Akka, which was the arrest and killing of a member of what was later known as the โ€œAkka Groupโ€ at sea.

At his funeral, the Israeli forces prevented his family from seeing his body before burial to prevent seeing the traces of torture he was subjected to before he was killed, which represented a pivotal shift in Teresaโ€™s life and her decision to join the Liberation Group.

In addition to the events in Akka, its influence on Palestinian guerrilla operations against Israel - which increased in the early seventies - was an additional reason for its decision.

On November 23, Teresa said goodbye to her village and left Arab lands towards the West Bank, then to Lebanon, accompanied by a young female classmate and without her familyโ€™s knowledge.

After arriving in Lebanon, she directly joined the Fatah movement and joined the Black September group, which had recently moved from Jordan to Lebanon, after the clashes between it and the Jordanian army.

Teresa was known for her strong position that women had a right to resist on the front lines.

In May 1972, she had what she wanted. She was one of the 4 militants who participated in the hijacking of the passengers of Sabina Flight 571, a Belgian Boeing 707 flying from Vienna, the capital of Austria, to Lod Airport in Tel Aviv, she and Ali Taha Abu Siena. Zakaria al-Atrash, and Rima Issa.

militants

Ali Hassan al-Salama was the main planner of this operation, and for those who do not know who al-Salama is, he is one of the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Army, which Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir nicknamed the Red Prince because he led many special operations against Israeli forces in the world.

As for the purpose of hijacking the Sabina flight, it was certainly to exchange the hostages with Jordanian and Palestinian prisoners held by the Israeli occupation forces.

After she was arrested, she was brought to trial in Israel, and she was sentenced to life imprisonment twice, and forty years, or 220 years.

But after 12 years, she was released after a prisoner exchange with the Israeli government, and then she was exiled to Jordan.

After her release, Teresa Halasa lived in Amman with her husband and three children, deprived of entering the Palestinian territories and seeing her family in Akka and Haifa, and she had a statement that she never regretted her armed action, as she said that she refused to surrender during the hijacking of the plane. It is worth noting that Teresa treated the civilian hostages well, and declared that her problem was primarily with the establishment and the Israeli state.

teresa

About the Author๏ƒ

Mujahid Al-Majali, a 29-year-old former air force soldier and an economic development and business specialist, also does translation and copywriting. Loves long drives, chill music and old school movies. A nicotine addict and a huge fan of Jack Danielโ€™s whiskey. Owned multiple businesses in Amman and southern of Jordan PRE-COVID and now focusing on translation and copywriting part of my experience through Upwork.