Embassy securityPalestinian ambassador to Czech Republic killed in explosion

Published 2 January 2014

Jamal al-Jamal, the Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic, was killed yesterday in a blast at his home in Suchdol, an upscale suburb north of Prague. The blast is believed to have been caused by explosives stored in a safe. When he opened the safe, the explosives went off. Riad al-Maliki, the Palestinian foreign minister, said that the safe had not been opened in at least thirty years. The ambassador moved to the new building in October, and workers moved the safe, unopened, from the old offices of the Prague Palestinian mission to the new one at that time.

Jamal al-Jamal, Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic // Source: okaz.com.sa

Jamal al-Jamal, the Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic, was killed yesterday in a blast at his home in Suchdol, an upscale suburb north of Prague. The blast is believed to have been caused by explosives stored in a safe. When he opened the safe, the explosives went off.

The Czech police say that its initial investigation has not found any signs of an attack on the ambassador residence, but that the police is still interested in finding out why such a large quantity of explosives was kept in the residence, which also housed the offices of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Prague.

The Guardian reports that Riad al-Maliki, the Palestinian foreign minister, said that the safe had not been opened in at least thirty years. The ambassador moved to the new – or rather, renovated — building in October, and workers moved the safe, unopened, from the old offices of the Prague Palestinian mission to the new one at that time.

The ambassador decided to open it. After he opened it, apparently something happened inside and [the safe] went off,” Maliki said.

Jamal, 56, was rushed to a Prague military hospital in serious condition, and died a few hours later without gaining consciousness.

An embassy spokesman, Nabil el-Fahel, told Czech Radio the ambassador’s entire family had been at the two-story residence when the blast occurred.

A Palestinian official in Ramallah said: “This explosion happened at his house. He recently moved there. He was taken to hospital. An investigation is under way.”

A second Palestinian source told the Guardian: “He moved an old case with him to the new house from the old house. And when he opened it, the explosion happened.”

The Palestinian foreign ministry said it would send a delegation to Prague to help with the investigation.

Jamal had been ambassador to the Czech Republic since October.

Analysts note that the reference by al-Maliki, the Palestinian foreign minister, to the fact that the safe had not been opened in thirty years may offer an explanation of the explosion. Until the late 1980s, the Palestinians used the offices of the PLO missions in foreign capitals to store explosives and weapons which were used in attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in those cities. That practice ended as the PLO abandoned terrorism and turned to diplomacy to achieve the Palestinian national goals, a process which culminated in the 1992 Oslo Agreement between Israel and the PLO.

It may well be the case that the safe was used to store explosives in that early, terrorist phase of the PLO. The current generation of Palestinians serving in diplomatic posts – and the ambassador was a member of this new generation — probably never imagined that an old, dusty safe which workers moved from the old PLO offices to the new Palestinian embassy would contain explosives —and would, in all likelihood, also be booby-trapped.