August 9, 1982
Chez Jo Goldenberg, a Jewish deli in Paris, is attacked by two terrorists wielding grenades and machine guns. Six people are killed, and 22 are injured.
Taking place while the Palestine Liberation Organization leadership, including Yasser Arafat, is under Israeli siege in Beirut, the attack is believed to have been planned and carried out by the Abu Nidal Organization, an international Palestinian terrorist group.
Active in the 1980s and ’90s, the Abu Nidal Organization is known for deadly attacks on Western, Palestinian and Israeli targets. A secular terrorist group, its goal is to derail diplomacy between the PLO and Israel and between the PLO and Western states, while it seeks the the destruction of Israel. Founded by Abu Nidal, who was born Sabri Khalil al-Banna in 1937 in Jaffa, the organization has sponsorship from Syria, Libya and Iraq and carries out operations in nearly 20 countries, killing approximately 300 people and wounding hundreds more.
Abu Nidal’s list of high profile attacks is long and indiscriminate, with targets ranging from civilians to Israeli diplomats and Palestinian leaders. The group’s attempted assassination of Israeli Ambassador Shlomo Argov in London earlier in 1982 was a factor leading to the First Lebanon War.
In September 1986, the Abu Nidal Organization attacks the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, killing 22. Attempting to thwart PLO-Israeli diplomacy at the Madrid peace talks in 1991, Abu Nidal terrorists assassinate Abu Iyad, the PLO’s second in command, in Tunis. In August 2002, Abu Nidal himself is reportedly killed by multiple gunshot wounds in Baghdad, Iraq.
