On This Day

Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.

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18 February

The El Al Boeing 720 attacked by four PFLP fightersPALESTINIAN PLANE HIJACKINGS - DAWSONS FIELD DRAMA
On this day in 1969, El Al Flight 432 was attacked by four armed members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, while it was preparing for takeoff at the Zurich International Airport for Tel Aviv. One attacker was killed and a crew member later died of his injuries. Mohamed Abu Al-Haija, Ibrahim Tawfik Youssef and Amina Dahbour were sentenced to twelve years hard labour but their release was secured by the Dawsons Field Palestinian plane hijackers the following year.

فلسطينيون يختطفوا طائرة - دراما ميدان داوسونز بالقرب من عمَّان

18 فبراير

في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 1969 ، تعرضت رحلة إل عال رقم 432 لهجوم من قبل أربعة مسلحين من الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين ، بينما كانت تستعد للإقلاع من مطار زيورخ الدولي باتجاه تل أبيب، وقتل أحد المهاجمين وتوفي أحد أفراد طاقم الطائرة في وقت لاحق متأثرا بجراحه. حُكم على المهاجمين محمد أبو الهيجاء وإبراهيم توفيق يوسف وأمينة دحبور بالسجن اثني عشر عامًا بالأشغال الشاقة ، لكن في العام التالي تمكن خاطفو الطائرات الفلسطينيون في ميدان داوسونز في عمان من تأمين إطلاق سراحهم .

The Dawson's Field hijackings involved Palestinian militants blowing up three planes they had forced to land at the remote airfield in the Jordanian desert. The guerillas blew up the airliners before a deadline had passed because they believed they were about to be attacked. A period of tense negotiation followed. The liberation of the remaining hostages hinged on the release of the captured PFLP militant being held in the UK, Leila Khaled, and six other Palestinian guerrillas being held in Switzerland and Germany.

Members of the Popular Front freed the majority of the hostages - mainly women and children - and took them on September 11th to the nearby Jordanian capital, Amman. They then moved 40 hostages to a secret location - 35 men and five women whom they said were members of the Israeli army and therefore "prisoners-of-war. If our demands are not met we will not release them - but there will be no reprisals and we will treat them well," a PFLP statement said. All the Palestinian dissidents were released on September 30th and all hostages were then freed unharmed.

Hijacker Leila Khaled was born in Haifa, now on the Israeli coast, but became a refugee with her family at a camp in Tyre, Lebanon, as a toddler in 1948. (During her 1969 hijacking of the TWA flight she forced the pilot to fly over Haifa, so that she could look at the home town she was not permitted to visit.)  She says she can barely recall a time when she was not politicised: she remembers at the age of four being told by her mother not to pick oranges because they were in Lebanon; the fruit was not theirs, they were not in Haifa now. She committed herself full-time to armed struggle at the age of 15.

AP footage of the event, including interviews with passengers
(https://youtu.be/GDi4wxp5Pz8)

 

At 6:05
AP: "Were any threats made to you about what might happen to you?"
Passenger: "No. None at all. None that we heard of whatsoever."
AP: "How did you find the Palestine commandos once you'd landed? What was their attitude towards you?"
Passenger: "They very pleasant. Extremely helpful. Very cordial. Very nice And the loved the children. That was something everybody noticed"
AP: "Did they threaten anything, to blow up the plane?"
Passenger: "No, never. They never threatened us at all in any way"