Bassam Abu Sharif

Dr Hanna Mikhail: A breeze of freedom that spreads

I now see now Hanna Mikhail (Abu Omar) in front of me. He went like a breeze of freedom that doesn’t wither but wanders in the sky without tiring awaiting freedom to rule the earth.

He was a calm, silent and thoughtful man, who, behind his eyeglasses, seemed like a scientist trying to discover a new chemical equation to help spread freedom and justice.

When I first met him he was acting and talking with great modesty to the extent that I thought he was shy. He was decent and polite. I felt like we were still at university... the conversation was short and precise.

We understood each other without many discussions as the level of consciousness does not require long talks but sound analysis to reach conclusions. He was cultured and informed and fully realized the rules governing the work at that period of time.

Dr Hanna’s apprehension of the rules of quantitative accumulation of qualitative accumulation and dialectics was a creative comprehension. Hanna Mikhail (Abu Omar) did not have any illusions about the difficulties we face in our struggle, mainly the poor administration and the absence of master ship in our struggle.

It was natural to work with others to raise the level of the human ability, master our work, develop the spirit of initiation and develop consciousness, whereby the fighter becomes creative.

You would sit with him and discuss briefly; he would seem calm and concentrated; and when the idea or plan matures in his head he would become full of energy and his relatively medium size figure becomes taller as if he was jumping and moving ahead.

This is what happened the night he disappeared… and so a breeze of fighting for freedom disappeared with him.

Some of our brothers were besieged and there was no way to help them except going to them by sea, and the sea was high and full of enemy boats. Abu Omar leapt from a meeting where he was calm and in concentrated thoughts, determined to go with his brothers to inject in them the spirit of courage and determination. In his short and fast steps he went aboard the boat and through the sea but did not reach the besieged group.

He went back to beloved and nearby Palestine…

A great thinker and cultured man has gone, whose veins were filled with the blood of a fighter for high human values, most important of which is freedom.

Martyr of freedom, martyr of Arab Palestine, we vow to you that we shall never rest as long as we are robbed of our freedomز

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Bassam Abu Sharif, the Political Advisor of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat

Amman August 2011