From AP:
Campa-Najjar said he is proud of his heritage but is American first. He has made clear that he has no personal connection to his grandfather, Muhammad Yusuf al-Najjar who was a mastermind of the terrorist murder of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes and coaches at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. Al-Najjar was assassinated a year later by Israeli commandos.Campa-Najjar was not so forthcoming in his description of his grandfather in two very similar articles he wrote for the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Washington Post about his family history:
“I’m happy to take responsibility for my own choices and my own decisions,” he said. “I think other men are responsible for their own crimes, whether it’s somebody who I share a lineage with and nothing else, or a sitting congressman who’s being indicted and could be facing serious charges in the future. ”
My father, Yasser Najjar, saw both his parents gunned down right in front of him when he was only 11 years old.Not a word about why that might have happened.
Campa-Najjar's grandfather was one of the founders of Fatah in the 1950s along with Yasir Arafat. He formed a number of terror cells. His nom de guerre was Abu Youssef - was the number 3 PLO leader and the leader of Black September terror group. He was assassinated in Beirut in 1973 for his role in the Olympics massacre.
Campa-Najjar's article in the Washington Post also seems problematic in another way, saying that he was in Gaza when Israel "carpet-bombed" his neighborhood.
I didn’t cry the night they cut off the electricity to all of Gaza City, and I, my mom, stepmom, dad and younger brothers hid in the dark corner of a cold kitchen floor as they carpet bombed our neighborhood. I didn’t cry when we had to leave baba behind and finally return to the United States in August 2001.This was during the second intifada, and while Israel did target terrorists from the air, nothing it did in Gaza at the time could remotely be called "carpet bombing," certainly not in 2001 when his family returned from Gaza to America. (Israel didn't use bombers in Gaza until 2003, and all its air operations were from helicopter gunships.)
Campa-Najjar also says "After not being considered Arab enough in Gaza, Latino enough for the barrio, or American enough in my own country, after so many shut doors, the door to all others finally opened."
It may be possible that he wasn't considered "Arab enough for Gaza," but his terrorist grandfather has a hospital named after him in Rafah. It seems his family was quite prominent and honored. His father was a top PLO official as well, although Campa-Najjar characterizes him only as a peacemaker during the Oslo process.
Since his paternal grandfather was considered a refugee in 1948 and lived in an UNRWA camp in Rafah, that means that according to UNRWA's rules, Ammar Campa-Najjar is himself a "Palestine refugee," as his American children and grandchildren will be. (Even if he adopts children, they would be considered "refugees.")
I agree with Ammar Campa-Najjar that he shouldn't be judged by the actions of his grandfather. But he shouldn't lie about his family history either, and he should properly castigate UNRWA for considering him a "refugee" as well since he has been a proud American citizen from birth.