The first target of Israel's response to the Munich massacre. The opening still records that “Israel considered Zwaiter a terrorist”, but the word count fell from 3 to 1, and the Munich massacre is no longer named in the first sentence.
Read line by line and written up by hand.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-02. “terror” appeared 3 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 1.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2010 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2010
Wael Zwaiter ( ) was a Palestinian translator assassinated as the first target of Israel's Operation Wrath of God campaign following the 1972 Munich massacre .1 Israel considered Zwaiter a terrorist for his alleged role in the Black September movement, while his supporters argue that he was "never conclusively linked" with Black September or the Munich massacre and was killed in retribution. Zwaiter was born in Nablus in the mid-1930s as son of Adel Zu`aiter. He went to Iraq and studied Arabic literature and philosophy at the University of Baghdad . Zwaiter moved then to Libya and afterwards to Rome , where he was a PLO representative and worked as a translator for the Libyan embassy . In addition to his native Arabic , Zwaiter spoke French , Italian , and English . During his time in Italy Zwaiter was in the process of translating One Thousand and One Nights from Arabic into Italian, but according to Emily Jacir, he never completed this and to date there is no "direct translation" from Arabic to Italian. Zwaiter was held for questioning by Italian police in August 1972 in relation to a bombing by the group Black September against an oil refinery, but was later released. The Israeli Mossad suspected him of being the head of Black September in Rome, and put him on an assassination list after Black September's attack in Munich. When he returned to his apartment building on the night of October 16, 1972, he was shot 11 times by two Israeli agents, killing him. At the time Zwaiter was the PLO representative in Italy , and while Israel privately claimed he was a member of Black September and was involved in a failed plot against an El Al airliner, members of the PLO have argued that he was in no way connected. Abu Iyad , deputy-chief of the PLO, has stated that Zwaiter was "energetically" against terrorism.2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 359225065.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Wael Zwaiter ( ; 2 January 1934 – 16 October 1972) was a Palestinian translator assassinated as the first target of Israel's Operation Wrath of God campaign following the 1972 Munich massacre . Israel considered Zwaiter a terrorist for his role in the Black September group , while his supporters argue that he was "never conclusively linked" with Black September or the Munich massacre and was killed in retribution. Zwaiter was born in Nablus in 1934, the son of Adel Zu'aiter. He went to Iraq and studied Arabic literature and philosophy at the University of Baghdad . Zwaiter moved then to Libya and afterwards to Rome , where he was a PLO representative and worked as a translator for the Libyan embassy . In addition to his native Arabic , Zwaiter spoke French , Italian , and English . During his time in Italy , Zwaiter was in the process of translating One Thousand and One Nights from Arabic into Italian, but according to Emily Jacir, he never completed this. Zwaiter was held for questioning by Italian police in August 1972 in relation to a bombing by the group Black September against an oil refinery, but was later released. The Israeli Mossad suspected him of being the head of Black September in Rome, and put him on an assassination list after Black September's attack in Munich . When he returned to his apartment building on the night of 16 October 1972, he was killed by two Israeli agents who shot him 11 times. At the time Zwaiter was the PLO representative in Italy, and while Israel privately claimed he was a member of Black September and was involved in a failed plot against an El Al airliner, members of the PLO have argued that he was in no way connected. Abu Iyad , deputy-chief of the PLO, has stated that Zwaiter was "energetically" against political violence.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 665856550.
The opening as it stood in 2020
Wael Abdel Zwaiter ( ; 2 January 1934 – 16 October 1972) was a Palestinian translator, assassinated as the first target of Israel's Operation Wrath of God campaign following the 1972 Munich massacre . Israel considered Zwaiter a terrorist for his role in the Black September group , while his supporters argue that he was "never conclusively linked" with Black September or the Munich massacre and was killed in retribution. Zwaiter was born in Nablus in 1934, the son of Adel Zu'aiter. He went to Iraq and studied Arabic literature and philosophy at the University of Baghdad . Zwaiter moved then to Libya and afterwards to Rome , where he was a PLO representative and worked as a translator for the Libyan embassy . In addition to his native Arabic , Zwaiter spoke French , Italian , and English . During his time in Italy , Zwaiter was in the process of translating One Thousand and One Nights from Arabic into Italian, but according to Emily Jacir, he never completed this. Zwaiter was held for questioning by Italian police in August 1972 in relation to a bombing by the group Black September against an oil refinery, but was later released. The Israeli Mossad suspected him of being the head of Black September in Rome, and put him on an assassination list after Black September's attack in Munich . When he returned to his apartment building on the night of 16 October 1972, he was killed by two Israeli agents who shot him 11 times. At the time, Zwaiter was the PLO representative in Italy, and while Israel privately claimed he was a member of Black September and was involved in a failed plot against an El Al airliner, members of the PLO have argued that he was in no way connected. Abu Iyad , deputy-chief of the PLO, has stated that Zwaiter was "energetically" against political violence.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 961270350.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
Palestinian Arab diplomat and writer (1934 – 1972) Abdel Wael Zwaiter ( ; 2 January 1934 – 16 October 1972) was a Palestinian translator, assassinated as the first target of Israel's Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre . Israel considered Zwaiter a terrorist for his role in the Black September group , while his supporters argue that he was "never conclusively linked" with Black September or the Munich massacre and was killed in retribution. Zwaiter was born in Nablus in 1934, the son of Adel Zu'aiter. He went to Iraq and studied Arabic literature and philosophy at the University of Baghdad . Zwaiter moved then to Libya and afterwards to Rome , where he was a PLO representative and worked as a translator for the Libyan embassy . In addition to his native Arabic , Zwaiter spoke French , Italian , and English . During his time in Italy , Zwaiter was in the process of translating One Thousand and One Nights from Arabic into Italian, but according to Emily Jacir , he never completed this. Zwaiter was held for questioning by Italian police in August 1972 in relation to a bombing by the group Black September against an oil refinery, but was later released. The Israeli Mossad suspected him of being the head of Black September in Rome, and put him on an assassination list after Black September's attack in Munich . When he returned to his apartment building on the night of 16 October 1972, he was killed by two Israeli agents who shot him 11 times. At the time, Zwaiter was the PLO representative in Italy, and while Israel privately claimed he was a member of Black September and was involved in a failed plot against an El Al airliner, members of the PLO have argued that he was in no way connected. Abu Iyad , deputy-chief of the PLO, has stated that Zwaiter was "energetically" against political violence.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1175461141.
The opening as it stood in 2025 10 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Palestinian Arab diplomat and writer (1934 – 1972) Abdel Wael Zwaiter ( Arabic : وائل زعيتر ; also known as Wa'el Zu'aytir ; 2 January 1934 – 16 October 1972) was a Palestinian writer and translator. He was assassinated as the first target of Israel 's Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre . Israel considered Zwaiter a terrorist for his role in the Black September group , while his supporters argued that he was "never conclusively linked" with Black September or the Munich massacre and was killed in retribution. Today Zwaiter is regarded with a high degree of certainty as innocent.Michael Bar-Zohar and Eitan Haber .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1296778753.
The opening as it stood in 2026 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Palestinian Arab diplomat and writer (1934 – 1972) Abdel Wael Zwaiter ( Arabic : وائل زعيتر ; also known as Wa'el Zu'aytir ; 2 January 1934 – 16 October 1972) was a Palestinian writer and translator. He was assassinated as the first target of Israel 's Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre . Israel considered Zwaiter a terrorist for his alleged role in the Black September group , while his supporters argued that he was "never conclusively linked" with Black September or the Munich massacre and was killed in retribution. Michael Bar-Zohar and Eitan Haber .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1362435698. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
“terror” appeared 3 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 1. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
2026
terror
3
2
1
1
1
1
massacre
3
3
3
3
3
3
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined between 2010 and 6 October 2023.
Then
palestinian translator assassinated as the first target of israel's operation wrath of god campaign following t
Filenames as Wikipedia recorded them at each snapshot. Interface icons are filtered out; these are photographs, maps and documents.
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
