Jules Jammal
| Jules Yusuf Jammal جول يوسف جمال |
|
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
29 April 1932 al-Mishtaya, Syria |
| Died | 29 October 1956 (aged 24) Port Said, Egypt |
| Nationality | Syrian |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
 Syria Egypt
|
| Service/branch |
Syrian Navy Egyptian Navy |
| Rank | First lieutenant |
Jules Yusuf Jammal (Arabic: جول يوسف جمال) is said to have been a Syrian military officer, born 1 April 1932, who killed himself in a suicide attack on 29 October 1956 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."
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 activated a suicide bomb when he rammed his boat into a French ship, destroying it and dying in the process.
It is unclear which actual ship he is supposed to have sunk. One source calls the ship at issue the "liner Jean D’Arc" and another the "French warship, Jeanne D’Arc". There was a French cruiser Jeanne d'Arc in service at that time, but it was decommissioned in 1964 rather than sunk. Some sources name the battleship Jean Bart, which did see action in the Suez Canal, but that vessel was also not sunk; it was decommissioned in 1961.
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