Chancellor Bruno Kreisky said yesterday that the Palestine Liberation Organization is “not at all involved” in a recent terrorist bomb attack apparently aimed at air communications between Vienna and Tel Aviv. He made that statement on a television interview after the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) warned of new attacks to disrupt the flow of Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union. The PFLP claimed credit for the explosion of a booby-trapped suitcase at Ben Gurion Airport last Wednesday.
Kreisky said that Austria would continue to keep its borders open to Jewish emigres in transit to Israel or other countries. “A closure is out of the question,” he said. But he appeared to take pains to absolve the PLO from any connection with the latest terrorist outrage. He has met in the past with several Arab leaders, including PLO chieftain Yasir Arafat. He told the TV reporter that a meeting with PFLP leader George Habash was not possible, but added, “I speak with anybody as long as it is useful.”
Meanwhile, Austrian authorities are cooperating with Israeli security forces to try to determine the identify of the man who flew from Vienna to Tel Aviv last week with the booby-trapped suitcase. The explosion took his life and that of an Israeli woman security officer.
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.
