Hanna Mikhail

Hanna Mikhail, nome de guerre Abu Omar, (حنا ميخائيل; 1935–unknown) was a Palestinian scholar and a Fatah member who disappeared in 1976.

Early life and education
Mikhail was born in Ramallah, Mandatory Palestine, in 1935. He hailed from a Christian family whose members were part of the Quaker community in Ramallah. Hanan Ashrawi is Hanna's cousin.

Mikhail graduated from the Friends School in Ramallah. Then he went to the US for university education when he got a scholarship. There he obtained a degree in chemistry from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. His thesis was entitled Politics and Revelation: Mawardi and After, and Mikhail's supervisor was the Israeli Orientalist Nadav Safran. It was published by the Edinburgh University Press in 1995. The preface of the book was written by Edward Said. Its Arabic edition was also published.

Career and activities
Following his graduation Mikhail joined the Princeton University as a lecturer. Then he taught at the University of Washington.

Mikhail left his teaching position in the summer of 1969 and settled in Jordan where he became a member of the Fatah movement. He was part of the left wing of the group. Mikhail was active in the formation of the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) international relations and information departments. He acted as a spokesperson of the Fatah and accompanied foreign journalists visiting the refugee camps, the military bases and camps. He helped the production of an Italian film on the Palestinian resistance movement of which the script was written by Romano Ledda in collaboration with Wael Zwaiter. Mikhail also arranged various conferences, festivals, and collaborative committees and was active in the management of the International Solidarity Camp based in Amman to improve the relations between Western Europeans and the Palestinian revolutionaries.

Mikhail and other PLO members left Jordan in 1971 after the events known as Black September and resided in Beirut. There Mikhail served at the PLO's Palestinian Research Centre and the Planning Centre. He was made a member of the editorial board of Shu'un Filastiniyya. He was also information adviser to the PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

Mikhail's scholarly work was destroyed during the invasion of Beirut by the Israeli forces in 1982.

Personal life
Mikhail's first wife was an American woman, and they divorced in 1966. He married Jehan Helou in Beirut in 1972. She was also part of the PLO. It was Edward Said's father-in-law, Emile Cortas, who officiated their wedding ceremony.

One of Mikhail's close friends was Edward Said. Another one was the French writer Jean Genet.

Disappearance
Mikhail was sent by Yasser Arafat to a refuge camp in Tripoli to investigate ongoing turmoil in July 1976. The area was under the control of the Phalange forces. He was accompanied by nine PLO members and two sailors. The group attempted to go to the camp by sea from Beirut. However, the fiberglass boat carrying them went missing. After this incident no news about him has been received.

The case was examined by the International Committee of the Red Cross, but it did not reach a conclusion. It is thought that he was arrested by the Phalange members and murdered by or surrendered to the Syrians. The Christian Science Monitor reported in September 1976 that Mikhail and his companions were secretly imprisoned by either Syrian or the Phalange forces.

Legacy
The PLO gave Mikhail the title of martyr. In Jean Genet's Un captif amoureux (1986; Prisoner of Love) the main character is Abu Omar referring to Hanna Mikhail. A seminar entitled Intellectuals and Revolution: On the 40th Anniversary of the Disappearance of Hanna Mikhail (Abu Omar) was organized by the Birzeit University in cooperation with the Institute for Palestine Studies in Birzeit on 22 November 2016.