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Italians Trained to Fight Israel in Palestinian Refugee Camps, Former Arafat Adviser Aays
(La Stampa) Maria Elena Spagnolo - During the Seventies, thousands of Italians went to Palestinian refugee camps to give their help, according to a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Bassam Abu Sharif, a member of PFLP who later became advisor of Yasser Arafat, spoke to the parliamentary inquiry committee into the death of Aldo Moro, the leader of the Christian Democratic Party, who was kidnapped and killed by the Red Brigades in 1978. Bassam Abu Sharif also said to the committee that there was a non-aggression pact between the Italian secret services and the Palestinian fedayeen. "The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine had special relations with some of the revolutionary groups emerging in Europe after 1968. These forces did not know how to oppose capitalism, and we taught them how to do it. It was part of the fight against the imperialism that supported Israel. Thousands of Italian young women and men came to Palestinian refugee camps in order to help in different ways, in the schools, in the clinics, or in combat," Bassam Abu Sharif said to the committee. This is the first time explicit mention is made of the presence of Italians in the Palestinian refugee camps forty years ago. He underlined the good relations between PFLP and the Italian government to demonstrate the non-involvement of his organization in the kidnapping of Aldo Moro.