In 1969, a young, 25-year-old woman from Palestine became the focus of the world's media after she, along with a colleague, hijacked a TWA flight enroute to Athens and Tel
Aviv on August 29. That woman was Leila Khaled. And it was not only the act itself that drew the attention of the world - no one was injured during the hijack - it was the beauty and
charisma of Khaled herself - who at the time was dubbed 'the world's most beautiful freedom fighter' by the press.
Khaled was a Palestinian activist who became an overnight sensation and household name, after the hijacking, and in doing so achieved her aim - of drawing the world's
attention to the plight of her countrymen and the injustices that were happening to the people of Palestine. Injustices that had previously been ignored and swept under
the carpet by the rest of the world. The story of the young woman who was to capture the hearts and imagination of the world, started in 1944 when she was born
into a large family (she had seven sisters and five brothers) in Haifa, now on the Israeli coast. Khaled's whole childhood and upbringing were the deciding factors in
her fate, preparing her for the task that was to become her life's work and struggle. After just four happy years in her birth place of Haifa, the creation of the Israeli
state in 1948, when Khaled was just four years old, forced her family to flea their homeland and take refuge in nearby Lebanon, like so many Palestinians of their generation.
The family stayed at an uncle's house in Tyre, but their mother was always clear that Lebanon was not their home, and that one day they would return to Palestine.
In interviews Khaled later claimed that politics were always a part of her life. At just eight years old, a young Leila took part in her first political demonstration - during a
'black day' at her school organised to protest the creation of the Israeli state which had forced so many Palestinians to give up their land and their livelihoods. But one
story from her childhood, perhaps more than any other sums up the dedication and determination of the young girl, who went on to change the course of history. The
story goes that when as a very young child Khaled went to pick an orange from her uncle's garden, her mother angrily told her to leave the fruit alone, that it was not
'their' fruit and that they could not eat oranges till they were back on Palestinian soil. To this day Khaled has reportedly not eaten an orange.
But how did this young woman from Haifa become a leading figure on the political stage and a freedom fighter in a region
where women traditionally took a back seat in politics? When she was still a teenager, along with her brothers and sisters, Khaled
joined the Arab Nationalist Movement which was set up to fight for Arab Unity, the liberation of Palestine and the return of refugees to their homeland. But her involvement was low key.
In her early twenties, Khaled who was a gifted student began her studies at the American University in Beirut and It was not until financial problems forced her to
leave her studies in 1963 and move to Kuwait to work as a teacher, that Khaled really became much more involved with the political group that would change the
course of her life - the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). It was in Kuwait that she became more politically active, joining the PFLP set up by George
Habbash and Wadi'ah Hadad. With the defeat of the Arabs in the 1967 war which resulted in the Israeli takeover of the the West bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and
Sinai, the young activist became more and more frustrated. She wanted to do more to help the Arab cause. She left for Jordan to join the PFLP resistance.
In Jordan, aged just 24, and under the guidance of PFLP leader Hadad, she underwent intensive training for the role that awaited her - as hijacker of the TWA
flight. Her first hijack took place on August 29, 1969. Her role was to take a TWA flight from Rome that was coming from New York en route to Athens and Tel Aviv.
The hijack itself took place at 33,000 feet, when she and her colleague barged into the cockpit, with grenades and pistols in hand, and forced the captain to change direction and fly direct to Tel Aviv.
While flying over Israeli airspace, Khaled got a glimpse of her hometown
Haifa for the first time in over two decades. The captain of the flight later told press that whilst flying over Haifa Khaled was openly crying. The plane never landed in Tel Aviv, it was
forced to land in Damascus in Syria, where the passengers were released and Khaled and her partner were kept under house arrest and then released quietly a few weeks later. In
interviews since the hijacking Khaled has said that she sees the first hijacking as a great success: "Until then the world only dealt with us as refugees. We
demonstrated and screamed and shouted to make the world listen, but the only answer we got was more tents and humanitarian aid. The hijackings were only a
short lived tactic, but I think they were successful in getting international opinion to ask: who are these people?
Now the intifada is giving the answer." Following her release the highly determined and defiant Khaled, underwent a series of cosmetic surgery operations on her face,
that would allow her to continue her work as a hijacker. And on September 6, 1970, took part in her second and final hijack of an El Al flight en route from Amsterdam to
New York. She carried out the second hijack with Nicaraguan-American
Patrick Arguello; the pair used fake passports from Honduras to get through passport control. Later
Khaled remembered how security at the airport thoroughly searched the couple's bags - but found nothing - the grenades used in the hijack were nestled safely in
Khaled's pockets. Once on the flight, the pair tried to storm the cockpit in mid-flight, they banged on the door and Khaled took the pins out of the grenades with her
teeth and ordered the captain to let them in. But armed guards on the plane began to shoot, fatally wounding her compatriot Patrick with four shots in the back.
They didn't shoot Khaled because she was holding the grenades but eventually over powered her and knocked her unconscious. She awoke to find herself tied up and
being brutally kicked. She claims that before the hijack she and Patrick were given strict instructions: 'Don't hurt the passengers, only defend yourselves'. She claims
she would never have used the grenades they were just to threaten the pilot. No one died during either of the hijacks Khaled was involved with.
The plane made an emergency landing in Britain at at Heathrow airport and Khaled was taken to Ealing Police Station where she was held for 28 days. Her guards recall
that she was just 26, petite and friendly - not what they expected of the woman who had been dubbed one of the world's most notorious 'terrorists'! During her stay
in the prison she was guarded each day by two female police officers in her cell. They later said she would talk to them about her struggle to draw attention to the
plight of her people and the Arab cause.
After she was released she kept in touch with the officers, sending them books
about the struggle and even offering one guard advice on her boyfriend troubles. Finally, after almost a month in prison, Khaled was released by the then, British Prime
Minister, Edward Heath, in exchange for 56 western hostages held by the PFLP following the seizure of five civilian airliners. British state papers released earlier this
year, refer to the case of Leila Khaled. Former Prime Minister Edward Heath's private file about the affair, includes a letter to Khaled's mother written by her during her
imprisonment in the west London prison. In the letter she describes her daily routine and promises she will 'return soon'. She also states in the letter that she was
treated well: "as if I were an official state guest". She added: "I do not worry about myself... the only thing that grieves and hurts me today is that I am not now
carrying arms and am not sharing with my people in the battle."
Khaled, now 57 years old, currently lives in Amman, Jordan (with her second
husband, a physiotherapist and two teenaged sons) where she has played a leading role in Palestinian and Jordanian women's organisations. She was back in news
headlines recently when she returned to the UK for first time since her imprisonment at Ealing to give a lecture on the Middle East and continue her campaigning for her
cause. In January this year, Khaled returned to England for the first time in over 30 years - since she was held there as a prisoner for 28 days. During a visit to Ealing
Police Station where she was held, Khaled told reporters that the peace process had failed to solve the Palestinian problem and predicted an intensification of the uprising
against Israel. Since the time of the hijackings, Khaled has continued her activism, first as a fighter, then as politician for the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine) and as a member of the Palestinian National Council. Though she has now moved into mainstream politics, she remains as radical as ever. She demands the
right to self-determination, a state with Jerusalem as its capital, the right to return for refugees and the withdrawal of Israel from all the land it has occupied since 1967.
During her visit to London, she says that though her tactics have changed, the cause remains and she has no regrets about being involved in the hijacks: "This
tactic of hijacking is no longer of any use. We have succeeded in raising the big question of who the Palestinians are," she told Reuters journalists in London. In her
memoirs, she recalls that during the hijackings she was concerned about the risk of hurting children on the flights. But she justified it by telling herself: "We Palestinians
have children too and we are part of the human race." When she is asked if she views herself as a 'terrorist', as many of the press dubbed her at the time, she
angrily retorted: "Why look at us as terrorists? Since my birth I and many of my people were terrorised. We are outside our country, are not allowed back and have endured 52 years of suffering."
Any female fighter is bound to attract attention, but particularly one so beautiful and one who came from a conservative, Arab patriarchal background. Khaled has over
come many traditional taboos for Arab women in her time: getting divorced and remarried, having children in her late 30s, rejecting her looks with plastic surgery,
taking an equal role fighting alongside men.
Women around the world have always related strongly to Khaled, but she has also
received criticism in the past for not using her notoriety to speak on behalf of women, just the 'cause'. In the past she responded by saying: "I represent
Palestinians, not women." But these days she claims that her views have changed slightly, as she said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper recently: "I no
longer think it is necessary to prove ourselves as women by imitating men. I have learned that a woman can be a freedom fighter, a political activist, and that she can
fall in love, and be loved, she can be married, have children, be a mother."
When asked whether she is a Palestinian or a woman first? She does not delay with
her answer: "I cannot differentiate. A woman and a Palestinian at the same time."
There is a famous black and white picture of Khaled which graced the front of
newspapers world-wide during the time of the hijack, which shows an extremely pretty young woman, with her hair wrapped in a checked kaffieh, wearing a grenade
pull as a ring. The picture made Khaled an icon overnight - she blended beauty and violence in an exciting mix which the media loved. It is also an image that will never
be forgotten by the people of Palestine and the rest of the world - of a courageous young woman, prepared to risk everything, including her life, to bring attention to the plight of her people.
No one woman represents the Palestinian cause quite as dramatically as the freedom fighter, turned political activist
Leila Khaled. Al Shindagah profiles the life of this remarkable woman and her ongoing struggle to attain justice for her countrymen.
