Police Minister Shlomo Hillel has blamed airport officials who fail to carry out proper security checks on boarding passengers with being “indirectly and without intention” responsible for Friday’s hijacking of a Japanese airliner with 145 aboard, and other airplanes in the past.
Meanwhile, Minister of Transport Shimon Peres said Israel would not give in to the terrorists’ demand that it release Kozo Okamoto, who is serving a life sentence for his part in the massacre of 26 people at Lod Airport in May, 1972. This has been the only known demand made by the terrorists since the jumbo jet with 123 passengers and 22 crew members landed in the Persian Gulf sheikdom of Dubai. However, Lebanese newspapers reported that the terrorists are also seeking $5 million in ransom.
The 145 persons were still aboard the Boeing 747 today waiting for the next move by the hijackers who seized the plane over Western Europe. The plane had been scheduled to go from Amsterdam to Tokyo via Anchorage, Alaska. Shortly after takeoff a grenade on the belt of a woman hijacker went off killing her and injuring the plane’s purser, Yoshihisa Miyashita.
Immediately after news of the hijack Friday, Lod Airport was put under heavy security since it was feared that the plane might be headed for Israel. The alert was relaxed toward dawn Saturday after the plane landed in Dubai.
TOLERANCE ENCOURAGING FURTHER ASSAULTS
Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Chief of Staff David Elazar had been at the airport, directing operations, but they left when the plane landed in the Persian Gulf sheikdom. Several Cabinet ministers were with Prime Minister Golda Meir at her home here until the alert was relaxed.
Hillel, in a radio interview yesterday, said international hijackings would not occur if countries took “strong measures against the terrorists instead of playing around with them. They are causing the continuation of the kind of horrible affair we are facing now,” he said. “This negligence and a certain tolerance toward this kind of Arab terrorist attack was encouraging further assaults.”
In Amsterdam, a Japanese Airline spokesman said the passengers had not been searched when they boarded the jet there Friday. Flight routes via India and Arab countries were all searched, but not those using the polar route to Tokyo, he explained. (See separate story.)
Israeli sources said that reports arrived here two weeks ago that two Japanese Kamikazees were in Europe for acts of sabotage. Airline companies and airport authorities were warned, but apparently the Amsterdam airport authorities were not so strict with northbound flights, the sources said.
HIJACKERS WORKED IN PAIRS
The airline which the hijackers have threatened to blow up if security forces ringing the airport come near is standing alone on the field. The hijackers have refused to negotiate with Dubai officials. During Friday night’s flight they identified themselves as the “Palestine end” of the ultra-leftist outlawed Japanese Red Army. They are reportedly three or four men: Arab and Japanese.
The only one to speak to the control tower from the plane was a hijacker who called himself Al Kassar. He claimed to command the plane. The group called the hijacking “Operation Jebel Karmal (Mount Carmel), an apparent reference to the Haifa area of Israel. JAL officials said the hijackers apparently worked in pairs-a man and woman traveling on Peruvian passports in the first class section and an unidentified Japanese and a Palestinian, Al Kassar, in the economy section.
El Fatah, and other Palestinian terrorist organizations have denied responsibility for the hijacking. But Israeli sources believe they are to blame. The Israelis believe that Arab organizations fear reprisals from Israel and therefore reject responsibility for recent actions such as the murder of Col. Yosef Allon in Washington and the abortive attempt last Thursday on the El Al office in Athens.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
