Israel took a calculated risk when it allowed a hijacked Lebanese airliner to land at Lod Airport Thursday, Minister Without Portfolio Israel Galili disclosed here. “We preferred to take the risk because we feared the hijacker might blow up the plane in the air and we would bear responsibility because we did not prevent it,” Galili said on a television interview Friday night.
The hijacker, 37 year-old Muhammed Atouni who is a citizen of Libya, was remanded in custody for 16 days by a Jerusalem Magistrate Friday. Judge Moshe Goldberg denied his request for release pending trial. The judge described Atouni’s act as “serious” If convicted he faces a possible life sentence.
The hijacker was subjected to prolonged interrogation Friday night and was examined by a psychiatrist. He claimed throughout that his action was motivated by a desire to prove that Arab and Jewish nations could live in peace. He claimed that he did not intend to use the two pistols he brandished when he seized a Lebanese Middle East Airways Boeing 707 over Cyprus and ordered it to fly to Israel. The plane with 125 passengers and crew members, was on a flight from Benghazi to Beirut. It was permitted to take off from Lod Thursday after Atouni was removed by Israeli security forces.
EVIDENCE HIJACKER WAS AN ARAB
Atouni’s interrogators said there was no doubt that the hijacker is of Arab origin because his Arabic speech left no room for doubt. They made the statement in response to allegations by the Libyan Ambassador to Iraq that Atouni’s manner of speech raised serious doubts that he was an Arab. The widespread Arab claim that Atouni was an Israeli agent was also refuted when Radio Tripoli reported that he was a native of Zintan Village and had a Libyan passport issued on June 24. His mother was quoted by the radio as saying that he had been mentally ill since his childhood.
When Atouni was removed from the plane, he had a half bottle of whiskey in his possession, it was learned. He had also purchased four shots of whiskey from the steward during the flight. Atouni was brought to the court handcuffed and under heavy police guard. He told reporters that he had never been to Israel before and that he had no friends or relatives here.
He said he had been to Egypt three times and that on his last visit in June he bought the two pistols in Alexandria. He denied the Libyan envoy’s allegation that he was an Israeli agent. Atouni said he was a Moslem born in Tripoli and was unmarried. It was learned that he had fired two shots, one from each of his pistols — the first when he burst into the cockpit to hijack the plane and the second when Israeli security forces approached the air liner after it landed at Lod. No one was injured.
SCALI PRAISED FOR SOFTENING RESOLUTION
In his television interview, Galili reiterated Israel’s defense of its Aug. 10 interception of the Lebanese airliner on which Palestinian terrorist leaders were believed to have been aboard. He conceded that it was an unconventional act but insisted that it was intended “to catch terrorist elements and save human beings.”
Referring to the United Nations Security Council’s unanimous condemnation of the interception and forced, landing of the Lebanese aircraft, Galili praised U.S. Ambassador John Scall for softening the resolution. “If the U.S. had not intervened, the resolution would have been stronger,” Galili said. He said the U.S. vote ‘should be regarded with regret,” but noted that Scall had made a distinction between condemnation of Israel’s act and general American policy in the Middle East and its friendly relations with Israel.
Galili said that the Security Council’s resolution once again exposed Israel’s isolation in the world but added that Israel should not under estimate the Council’s resolutions and world opinion.
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.
