Leila Khaled

Leila Chaled (2009)

Leila Khaled (born April 9, 1944) is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Khaled came to public attention for her role in the TWA Flight 840 hijacking in 1969 and one of the four simultaneous Dawson's Field hijackings the following year as part of the campaign of Black September in Jordan. The first woman to hijack an airplane, she was later released in a prisoner exchange for civilian hostages kidnapped by other PFLP members.

Quotes

• We must fight for one Arab nation, for unity, for freedom, for socialism. We must defeat enemy number one, America, the supplier of Hawk missiles to Israel, and we must seize our own oil resources. We must learn to emulate our Algerian brethren in order to liberate Palestine. Long live Palestine, Arab and revolutionary!
  • My People Shall Live (1973)

• Who decides and defines what terrorism is? As far as I'm concerned, occupation is terrorism. My people and I have a right to fight it. I don't care what others call it. People have a right to fight those who occupy their country by all means possible including weapons. That's what it says in the UN declaration.
  • Leila Khaled: Hijacker (2006)

• When we hi-Jacked the planes the whole world wondered who we were. Regardless of what they thought about it, they wondered. But when we were tortured in lsraeli prisons, who heard our screams? We had to do what we did in order to get your attention. Our people suffered in Justice. No sound person accepts that! No one.
  • Leila Khaled: Hijacker (2006)

• I'll explain why the plane was hi-jacked. We had to; to get attention so that the world would understand our cause. We weren't refugees who were satisfied with aid. It wasn't a natural disaster that made us refugees. We captured the planes to ask the world a question. Who are the Palestinians?
  • Leila Khaled: Hijacker (2006)