Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 05:13:30 +0100 (BST)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?eldorra=20mitchell?= <manynotone-AT-yahoo.co.in>
Subject: Interview with Leilia Khaled Guerrilla


Here is the transcript of an interview with Leila
Khaled. In those days she was described as a
guerrilla.
It is from a BBC
special._______________________________
Khaled had led an attempted hijacking of an El Al
flight from Amsterdam but was overpowered and arrested
on arrival in the UK. Her colleague died in the
struggle. 
Documents disclosed under the UK's 30-Year Rule reveal
that the government decided to negotiate with the
Palestinian guerrillas and release Khaled in exchange
for hostages. 
BBC Television's UK Confidential special documentary
spoke to Khaled about the dramatic events. 
What was the purpose of the 1970 hijackings? 
We wanted to put the Palestinian question in front of
international opinion. 
All the time we were being dealt with as refugees who
only needed human aid. That was unjust. 
I felt very strongly that I had to do anything for my
people, even change my features through plastic
surgery 
Leila Khaled  
Nobody had heard our screams and suffering. All we got
from the world was more tents and old clothes. 

After 1967, we were obliged to explain to the world
that the Palestinians had a cause. 

We wanted to go back to our homeland. We also wanted
to release our prisoners from Israeli jails. 

We aimed to do all these things through these actions.


So what happened during the hijacking? 

There were three planes to be hijacked, a Swissair,
because of our comrades in a Swiss jail and another
two in Munich in Germany. As for El Al it's because we
wanted to release our prisoners from the Israeli
jails. 

My comrade was Nicaraguan, his name Patrick Obelo. I
had two hand grenades and my comrade had a pistol. 

Black September 
6 Sept: PFLP hijack four airliners, one destroyed, one
fails
7 Sept: Fifth hijack. 72-hour ultimatum issued 
12 Sept: 255 hostages released, 56 held. PFLP destroy
three jets at Dawsons Field
17 Sept: Fighting between Palestinians and Jordanian
forces
19 Sept: King Hussein appeals to UK and US 
27 Sept: Palestinian-Jordan truce 
30 Sept: Leila Khaled released 
We knew beforehand that on the plane there were armed
security men - but we didn't know that the crew were
armed too. 

After half an hour, we stood up. I opened the pins of
the two hand grenades and Patrick took the pistol. 

We stood up, shouted and asked the people to be calm. 

Shooting began from the plane's guards. I rushed to
the cockpit and left Patrick. 

When I reached the cockpit, somebody looked through
the magic eye (at me) and I told him that I had two
hand grenades. 

But they did not open the door. 

Then at that moment somebody hit me on my head and
caught my hand. I thought that the plane exploded. 

But I opened my eyes and saw people just kicking and
beating me. 

I saw Patrick, and he was breathing heavily with blood
coming out of his body. Then somebody came with a
pistol. I thought that it was my time so I closed my
eyes. 

But I opened my eyes again to see somebody else
crashing a bottle of whisky over Patrick's head. 

After the plane landed, I heard somebody speaking
English. A British man took me - of course he was from
the police - and he threw me, directly in to the
ambulance. 

Patrick was there and he had a mask on his face. 

After a few minutes, the woman who was in the
ambulance took the mask off and she said that he had
passed away. 

I was furious, shouting and crying. 

How did you feel when it all went wrong? 

I had not been scared before the hijacking. 

I was happy that I had been given such a mission and
expected that my comrades in Israeli jails would be
released. 

Following my capture, it was very hard for me. For
about five, six days I couldn't eat. I was in grief
because of my comrade being killed. 

You were known to security forces - how did you get on
the plane? 

I was a well-known person after the first hijacking in
1969. 

I needed to have plastic surgery to get on to the
El-Al plane. So I had a number of slight changes made
to my face and I managed to penetrate the security
measures of the Israelis. 

I felt very strongly that I had to do anything for my
people, even change my features. 

So I bore all the pain of the operations over six
months. 

Once you had been arrested in London, had you expected
your comrades to hijack another plane? 

I did not expect to be in London because we had aimed
to hijack the plane and take it to Dawson's Field in
Jordan, which we had called, at that time, Revolution
Airport. 

What happened was that somebody who was not in PFLP
but was angered by my capture went and hijacked a BOAC
flight the next day and demanded my release. 

Britain was not part of the action. And of course
Britain itself was not happy about it because it was
now involved in things which it had not expected. 

Once Britain was drawn in, was there a decision to
show your displeasure with British policy in the
Middle East? 

The only message was to release me but at the same
time to speak about the policies of Britain. 

The PFLP blew up the planes to show it was serious. 

But at the same time, the airport was surrounded by
Jordanian tanks and we didn't have any other option
but to blow up the planes to show how serious we were.


We wanted to demonstrate our position - we weren't
going to compromise. We had asked for the release of
the prisoners in Switzerland, Germany and in Britain. 

We knew beforehand that the governments wouldn't care
much about the planes - but they did care much about
the people. 

When the British began negotiating with the PFLP, was
this a triumph for the group? 

They could not do anything but accept the demands. 

We just wanted the governments to recognise that these
people had a legitimate struggle. 

I think that the European governments recognised us in
a situation when we had power. 

It was a good step for us because [it showed] that
governments could be negotiated with and that we could
impose our demands. 

Before then, these governments didn't recognise us
because the struggle was in our own region. 

So you believed that the mission had been a success? 

To an extent, yes. At the beginning of our revolution
we had to create publicity for our struggle. 

I think that by using these tactics, we succeeded in
putting our message in front of the whole world. 

So did the willingness of governments to negotiate
encourage you further? 

The success in the tactics of hijacking and imposing
our demands and succeeding in having our demands
implemented, gave us the courage and the confidence to
go ahead with our struggle. 

It made us continue the struggle because it showed us
materially that we could achieve our goals by armed
struggle. 



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