Seventy-one percent of West Germans believe that aerial hijacking should be treated as an international crime, according to a poll published here by the Emnid Institute. Only 10 percent however demanded severe punishment for offenders and six percent believed that a boycott of air traffic should be imposed on Arab states abetting hijackers. Of those interviewed. 22 percent favored better security and control procedures for air traffic; three percent asked for armed guards aboard commercial airliners. Although no German aircraft were involved in the mass hijackings by Arab terrorists last September, a number of West German citizens were among the hostages taken and the Bonn government submitted to ransom demands by freeing three Arabs who had been jailed for previous attacks on civilian airliners on German soil. According to the poll, five percent of the interviewees believed the demands of hijackers should be met three percent said hijacked passengers should be liberated by force; three percent demanded the execution of aerial kidnappers and two percent asked for political and economic sanctions against Arab states involved in the hijackings. One percent believed that all foreigners convicted by German courts for hijackings should be expelled from Germany. Another one percent wanted all aid to Israel stopped until that country took a more moderate stand.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
