Jules Jammal
Jules Yusuf Jammal () is said to have been a Syrian military officer who killed himself in a suicide attack during the Suez Crisis, in Egypt. According to a narrative prevailing in the Arab world, Jammal rammed his boat into a French warship, thereby sinking the ship. This story is given credence in some sources. However, as related in the 1967 book Six days in June: Israel's fight for survival by Washington correspondent and historian Robert J. Donovan, the tale is false but gained traction in the Arab world after being aired on Radio Cairo. It is cited as an example of the "potency of [the station] to propagate myths [as being] beyond dispute." Narrative According to sources from Arab countries, Jammal's biography and actions are the following: He was born in al-Mishtaya, a village located between Homs and Latakia, into an Arab Orthodox Christian family. He later joined the Syrian Navy as an officer. During the 1956 Suez Crisis, he is said to have volunteered in the name of Arab nationalism to launch a suicide bomb attack against the tripartite invasion by Israel, the UK and France into the Sinai Peninsula in order to capture the Suez Canal. Jammal