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Abbreviations and terms:
PLO – The Palestine Liberation Organisation. A Palestinian umbrella organisation. From 1969 to his death in 2004 Yasser Arafat was the organisation's leader.
PLA – The Palestine Army, member of the PLO.
PFLP – The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, member of the PLO.
DFLP – Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a break away organisation from the PFLP, member of the PLO.
Fatah – also known as the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (PNLM), and the largest organisation within the PLO after the Six-Day War in 1967. Member of the PLO.
As-Sa'iqa – Syrian supported member organisation of the PLO. Initially the second largest one after Fatah, but when Syria used it for its own purposes it lost most of its Palestinian support.
Black September – A clandestine off-shot of Fatah founded in 1971. Most famous for taking Israeli athletes and coaches hostage and eventually murdering them, during the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972.
Fedayeen – Guerrilla (Arabic word for one who is prepared to sacrifice themselves). Depending on which side you're on politically the Palestinian Fedayeen are either freedom fighters or terrorists.
Most Palestinians are Sunni Muslims, though the aforementioned organisations and groups are secular, politically ranging from socialist to communist. (Hamas, which doesn't appear in this story, was founded by members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in 1987, and rests firmly on a conservative religious foundation.)
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MI6 – Military Intelligence Section 6, these days officially named the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). It provides the British government with foreign intelligence.
NHS – The National Health Service. The tax funded healthcare system in the UK.
Oxfam – Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, started as a Quaker/social activist organisation. It has grown over the years and is today an international NGO with 17 affiliations. Their main goal is combatting poverty and social injustice.
UNRWA – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
DDR – Deutsche Demokratische Republik (the German Democratic Republic), East Germany. At the end of WWII Germany was divided into four sectors, the British, the French, the American and the Russian sector. In 1949 the Russian sector became DDR, while the remaining three formed Bundesrepublik Deutschland (the Federal Republic of Germany). The two countries were joined as Germany again in 1990.
Weapons:
Kalashnikov – An automatic rifle, also called an assault rifle. Though they come in several variants, the most common and widely spread is the AK-47, the very first of its kind designed in 1947 by Mikhail Kalashnikov. No insurgents worth their salt go without them.
SAM – Surface-to-air missiles. Used to shoot down aircrafts.
Actual historic people:
The Hashemites – The House of Hashim, the royal family in Jordan since 1921. For centuries they were rulers of Mecca but in 1924 they were ousted by the House of Saud. They have been British supported since 1916 when the Hashemites challenged the Ottoman Empire, enemies of the British Empire. For a while they also ruled Iraq but that branch of the family was murdered in the revolution in 1958.
Hafez al-Assad (mostly known as Assad) – Military commander in Syria (from 1966) and from 1971 until 2000, president of Syria. The instigator of “the corrective revolution” in 1970 which allowed him to seize power.
Leila Khaled – PFLP member and made famous in 1969 when she hijacked a TWA plane bound for Athens from Rome. She was born in Haifa, but in spring 1948 her family fled their home at the increasing violence in Palestine. They ended up in the refugee camp Shatila, in Beirut.
Saladin – Sultan over Syria and Egypt in the 12th century. Mostly known for unifying much of the Middle East and ousting the Europeans from Jerusalem.
Kim Philby - A high-ranking member of MI6 who worked as a double agent. Defected to Soviet Union in 1963 from his assignment in Lebanon.
George Blake - Rotterdam born agent for MI6 who worked as a double agent. Was exposed in 1961 in Lebanon while attending the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies. Escaped from his London prison in 1966 and fled to the Soviet Union via DDR.
Places of interest in the story:
Irbid – City in northern Jordan and a PLO strong hold until 1970. Declared liberated territory by PLO groups on September 12th 1970. September 14th Jordanian military loyal to the Hashemite king, Hussein, began attacking Palestinian refugee camps and Fedayeen positions in major cities including Irbid. September 20th Syrian troops rolled into Irbid, but they were forced to begin a retreat on September 24th. The conflict continued between PLO and the Jordanian army and in spring 1971 PLO had to retreat into the mountains around Aljoun and Jarash.
Aljoun and Jarash – The two remaining PLO positions in Jordan after the events in September 1970 and the continuing fighting between PLO and the Hashemite controlled army. Evacuated in June 1971. Located south of Irbid, north of Amman.
Amman – Capital of Jordan
Zarqa – Was made famous when PFLP used the Dawson's Field, an old British military base just outside of town, to land four hijacked airliners, one 707 from TWA, one DC-8 from Swissair, one 747 from Pan Am and one VC-10 from BOAC on September 6th and 9th 1970. The passengers and crew were held hostage and the planes were blown up. The hostages were later released, the British citizens in exchange for the PFLP member Leila Khaled who had been arrested in London after failing to hijack an El Al flight that was to be taken to the airfield in Jordan.
The Middle East Centre for Arab Studies was temporarily located in Zarqa in 1947 when the British pulled out of Palestine. See Shemlan.
The Golan Heights – Originally Syrian territory, seized by Israel in 1967 after the Six-Day War
Damascus – Capital of Syria
Beirut – Capital of Lebanon
Hamra – District in west Beirut, predominately Muslim
Shatila – Palestinian refugee camp set up in south Beirut by UNRWA in 1949
Shemlan – Located in the mountains above Beirut International Airport, just south of Beirut. Between 1948 and 1978 the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies, otherwise known as the spy school, was located here. It was run by the British government and was evacuated in 1976 because of the civil war in Lebanon. Famous double agent George Blake got his training at the school in the beginning of the 1960s.
The British held control over Palestine, Transjordan (Jordan) and Iraq from the end of WWI until 1947, 1946, and 1932. Kuwait was under British control from 1899 until 1961. The French held control over Syria and Lebanon until 1943.
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Munich – The capital of Bavaria, in the very south of Germany
Olympisches Dorf – Constructed for the Olympic Games in 1972, located in Schwabing, north west of the city centre.
English locations:
Barnsbury Estate – Originally a council flat development in Clerkenwell, Islington N1, London
Hampton Court Palace – Royal palace on the outskirts of London, in the south west, by the Thames River, East Molesey KT8
Esher – A few miles south of Hampton Court Palace, KT10, London
100 Westminster Bridge Road – MI6 headquarters from 1966 to 1995, Lambeth SE1, London
296 - 302 Borough High St – MI6 non-field training headquarters, Southwark SE1, London
Worthing - Seaside town in West Sussex, on the channel coast
Fort Monckton – An old fort in Gosport, outside Portsmouth, used by the MI6 as field training facility.