1 Million-signature Petition Condemning Hijacking to Be Sent to Nixon, UN

City Council President Sanford D. Garelik launched a public opinion drive against the condoning of skyjacking when he signed a petition today recommending sanctions against nations failing to act against such offenses. A dozen other City Council members added their signatures in a ceremony on the City Hall steps. The drive, which seeks to obtain 1 million signatures in the metropolitan area, is sponsored by the People’s Coalition to End Air Piracy and the Free Sons of Israel, the latter a 121-year-old “national patriotic fraternal order of ethnic American Jews.” The petition, which will be submitted to President Nixon and to the United Nations, recommends in part “international sanctions against any country that fails to adhere to this declaration in full by banning all aerial traffic to and from the airports of the offending country.”

The petition also declares that “any country where a hijacked plane lands must return immediately to the country from which the flight originated the plane, the passengers, the crews and the hijackers.” Lou Norris, grand master of the Free Sons Of Israel, said that the petition “will be the test of the United Nations–whether it will remain an ineffectual debating society or prove that it can exercise its will and power to end international gangsterism.” He said airline abductions “will end only when the hijackers realize that their crimes are futile, and that they will be returned to face the consequences of their madness.” Mr. Norris said there were plans to extend the drive internationally, including behind the Iron Curtain. Jack E. Levine, general counsel to the Free Sons said that air and pilot groups were “impatient” to implement sanctions, and that “all they need is an authorization from the United Nations.”