Palestinian Terrorist Group Attacks Jewish Restaurant in Paris

August 9, 1982

Chez Jo Goldenberg, a Jewish deli in Paris, was attacked by two terrorists wielding grenades and machine guns. Six people were killed and twenty-two were injured. The attack was believed to have been planned and carried out by the Abu Nidal Organization, an international Palestinian terrorist group. The attack occurred while Arafat and the PLO were under Israeli siege in Beirut.

Active in the 1980s and 90s, the Abu Nidal Organization was known for carrying out deadly attacks on Western, Palestinian and Israeli targets. A secular terrorist group, their goal was to derail diplomacy between the PLO, Israel and Western nations, while calling for the destruction of Israel. Founded by Abu Nidal, who was born Sabri Khalil al-Banna in 1937 in Jaffa, the organization received sponsorship from Syria, Libya and Iraq. They carried out operations in nearly twenty countries, killing approximately 300 people, and wounding hundreds more.

Abu Nidal’s list of high profile attacks is long and indiscriminant, with targets ranging from civilians to Israeli diplomats and Palestinian leaders. Their attempted assassination of Israeli Ambassador Shlomo Argov in London in 1982 was identified as a factor leading to the First Lebanon War. In September 1986, they attacked the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, killing twenty-two. Attempting to thwart PLO-Israeli diplomacy at the Madrid peace talks in 1991, they assassinated Abu Iyad, the PLO’s second in command in Tunis. In August 2002, Abu Nidal himself was reported to have been killed by multiple gunshot wounds in Baghdad, Iraq.

The photo shows the aftermath of the bombing at the Chez Jo Goldenberg deli.