Mohammed Taki Mehdi

Mohammed Taki Mehdi was an Arab-American activist, writer, and pro-Palestinian leader. He was born in Karbala, Iraq, in 1928, to a wealthy and influential family. He came to the United States to study at the University of California at Berkeley and achieved a doctorate in Political Science. He was involved in the underground Zionist movement in his youth, but later became disillusioned with Zionism and Israel. He founded the Action Committee on American-Arab Relations, and held debates with many supporters of Israel, including the rabbi Meir Kahane. He also interviewed Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert F. Kennedy, and wrote a book titled Kennedy and Sirhan: Why?, in which he defended Sirhan's actions. He was a vocal critic of the US involvement in the Middle East, and supported the Palestinian right of return. He died of a heart attack at Bellevue Hospital in New York in 1998.