Leila Khaled, Palestinian, born in Haifa, became militant in order to attract international attention to the suffering and struggle of Palestinians.I first heard about her through a friend, Eva, who put on her facebook page how happy she was to receive a t-shirt with Leila Khaled. I wondered who she was and explored more. There are tuns of info, but this short blog post led me to an interesting article about her from which I am copying a couple of citations.
In 1969, aged 25 and armed with grenades and handguns, she became the first woman ever to hijack an airliner, diverting a TWA flight to Damascus, where she escaped after securing the release of hostages in exchange for political prisoners, and destroying the plane on the ground.
"There is a difference between terrorism and armed struggle."
"Today freedom fighters are considered terrorists, and terrorists are considered peacemakers. The capitalists have always created instruments to make people believe their lies.
This is globalization, a new invention."
This is globalization, a new invention."
- "We are against assassination, but when it is time to act, we will act, because they have assassinated us constantly for 54 years. Do you expect us to say ‘OK, we accept it’? By violence they have occupied the country, by violence we were driven out, and by violence they have established their state. As long as there is occupation there will be resistance. The Israeli government is violating international law. As long as Sharon, Netanyahu and this gang of war criminals are in control in Tel Aviv, the struggle will escalate. The bloody history of Sharon is wellknown. But his future will be bloody also. Palestinians know how to deal with such bloody people."
