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.
3 August
TOXIC ISRAELI CARGOES TRANSIT EUROPE WITHOUT NORMAL CHECKS
On this day in 2003, an El Al cargo aircraft lost parts of its body while landing at Amsterdam airport. The next day, the damaged plane was allowed to take off again. Despite the El Al disaster at the same airport in October 1992, Dutch air traffic authorities had not even conducted a safety inspection. El Al cargo aircraft follow “different procedures” from other airlines. Under a special bi-lateral agreement the cargo of Israeli planes are checked on paper only, though frequently the airway bills do not match the cargo.
عبور البضائع الإسرائيلية السامة الى أوروبا دون مراقبة او قيود
3 أغسطس
في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 2003 ، فقدت طائرة شحن تابعة لشركة العال أجزاء من جسمها أثناء هبوطها في مطار أمستردام. في اليوم التالي، سمح للطائرة المتضررة للإقلاع مرة أخرى . على الرغم من كارثة العال في نفس المطار في أكتوبر1992 ، لم تقم سلطات الحركة الجوية الهولندية حتى بإجراء فحص السلامة. تتبع طائرات العال للشحن "إجراءات مختلفة" عن باقي شركات الطيران الأخرى. بموجب اتفاق خاص بين الدولتين يتم فحص شحنات الطائرات الإسرائيلية على الورق فقط، على الرغم من أن فواتير الرحلات الجوية في كثير من الأحيان لا تتطابق مع البضائع.
The plane’s black box - cockpit voice recorder - was never found, prompting rumours that members of the Israeli secret service joined the rescue teams undercover to remove any sensitive material. The appearance of men in white suits sifting through the wreckage added to the air of mystery surrounding the crash.
The refusal to even inspect the 2003 Israeli El Al cargo aircraft is suspicious given the Dutch government cover up for more than six years of the lethal military cargo carried by another El Al jumbo jet which crashed into a block of flats in Amsterdam eleven years earlier
At a parliamentary inquiry into the 1992 crash held in The Hague in 1999, the authorities finally admitted that they had known since the 1992 disaster that the Israeli Boeing 747 was carrying explosives, ammunition and flammable and toxic gases. Among the plane's 114 tonnes of previously [secret] unspecified cargo was 190 litres of dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP), a chemical used in the manufacture of sarin poison gas. It is believed to have been destined for Israel's biological research institute in Nes Ziona,
The official line - that the cargo was harmless - disintegrated as a former head of air traffic control at Schipol Airport played a tape recording of a conversation between an El Al official and the airport within minutes of the crash. The official warned the authorities about what was on the plane. In a further call half an hour later, El Al urged the airport to keep quiet about the cargo. The tape had remained locked in a safe ever since.
El Al cargo planes still fly in and out of Schiphol Airport carrying classified cargoes that are not subject to checks.