Guarding the Secrets: Palestinian Terrorism and a Father's Murder of His Too-American Daughter
by Ellen Harris
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1995. 352 pp.
Middle East Quarterly
September 1995
Reviewed by Daniel Pipes
In November 1989 in St. Louis, the FBI inadvertently tape recorded the entire episode of a teenage girl's being killed by her Palestinian father and Brazilian mother (the Feds were looking for evidence of terrorism, which they also found). In a ghastly eight-minute sequence, Zein Isa stabbed his daughter Palestina thirteen times with a butcher's knife as his wife held the girl down and responded to Palestina's pleas for help with a brutal "Shut up!" The killing ends with Zein screaming "Die! Die quickly! Die quickly! . . . Quiet, little one! Die, my daughter, die!" By this time, she is dead.
Harris, a St. Louis television reporter, has done admirable spade work going through the court transcripts and interviewing everyone connected to the case in an attempt to piece together the interlocking stories of family murder and active support of Abu Nidal's terrorist organization. In addition, she successfully conjures up the small and exceedingly unpleasant world of Zein Isa and his family of rabid anti-Americans living right in the American heartland. The murder culminates their lives of frustration, greed, and vulgarity. Unfortunately, Harris spent more effort digging up information than she did writing the book; so the more-than-casual reader must read and reread its pages to piece together the sequence of events and the scope of the Isa family's involvement with Abu Nidal. Doing so repays the effort, however, for Harris has compiled a treasure trove of materials on two usually elusive subjects.
From www.danielpipes.org | Original article available at: www.danielpipes.org/article/672
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Wikipedia,
Zein Isa (died February 17, 1997) was a Palestinian immigrant living in St. Louis, who was responsible for the honor killing of his 16-year old daughter Palestina (also known as Tina) in 1989. His wife Maria Isa was Brazilian. After learning that Palestina had taken a part-time job without her parents' permission, and dated an African American boyfriend, Maria held down Palestina, who was then repeatedly stabbed by Zein.
Zein Isa was a member of the Abu Nidal Organization, which at the time he murdered his daughter was plotting to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.. A crucial factor in his trial was that the FBI had Zein under surveillance in connection with his suspected militant activities, and had recorded Palestina's murder on an audio cassette. This was especially important in confirming that Maria was an active participant in the murder, and that Zein's claim of self-defense was unwarranted.
On December 20, 1991 both Zein and Maria Isa were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. On April 1, 1993 Zein Isa was indicted by the FBI in connection with his Abu Nidal Organization activities, but the charges were dropped because he was already on Death Row. Zein Isa succumbed to diabetes on February 17, 1997. Maria's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment without parole.
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