'I Was A Hostage On Hijacked Airplane'

by David Rabb - Thursday 8th 2007f November 2007


David reunited with his sister

In September 1970, David Rabb was a teenager travelling on a plane from Israel that was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists. This month sees the publication of his book recalling his harrowing ordeal – Terror In Black September. Here, he tells TJ about those dark days and shares his thoughts on the lessons that can be learnt for today.

On 6 September, 1970, the PFLP executed one of the most audacious terrorist acts ever, attempting to hijack four airplanes, an infamous record repeated only 31 years later. I was a 17-year-old with my mother and four younger siblings aboard TWA flight 741 on our way home to the United States from Israel. Our plane was forced to the desert floor, about 35 miles northeast of Amman, Jordan.

A hijacked Swissair plane landed shortly after, nearly colliding with us. The PFLP wired our plane with explosives and threatened to blow us up in 72 hours unless Israel, Britain and other European countries freed terrorists they held.

Non-Jewish women and children were released to Amman, but over 100 people remained aboard our plane for nearly a week. With no electricity, we had neither air conditioning during the blistering days nor heat during the cold desert nights. There were no lights and no functioning toilets. Food and water were scarce. Jewish passengers were interrogated, some threatened at gunpoint.

At 2am on Friday morning, 11 September, I was suddenly wakened by a flashlight shining in my face. I walked to the front, quaking uncontrollably. My mother, who heard the rustling, quickly came forward and tried to convince our captors not to take me away, that I was but a child. She was threatened at gunpoint as I descended the rickety wooden ladder off the plane, certain that I was being taken to be killed.

I was transported with nine other men to a refugee camp and put into a small, bare room where I sat in fear for two days. I recited psalms to comfort myself.
On Saturday, the PFLP spectacularly blew up the three planes in the desert – a BOAC plane had been hijacked on Wednesday – and released all but 38 Americans, eight Britons and eight other Europeans. On Thursday, 17 September, now with 31 other Americans in a bare three-room apartment in Amman, I awoke to the roar of artillery shells and machine gun fire, as full-scale fighting erupted between King Hussein and Yasser Arafat’s PLO. The hijackings were the last straw for King Hussein, who now determined to reinstate his sovereignty over his country which the PLO terrorised over the prior years.

For ten days, I sat under shelling as the bloody war raged. Water and electricity were cut off, and food and water were minimal. The conflict took a dire turn when Syria invaded Jordan to aid the PLO. King Hussein, worried for his throne, asked Britain to pass a desperate plea to Israel for immediate air strikes on the Syrian forces. Britain never did so. Prepared to see Hussein fall, it passed the message after 12 long hours only to the United States and refused even to support any US action to help Hussein. After several tense days, Hussein was able to repel the Syrians and returned to fighting the PLO. On September 25, Yasser Arafat agreed to a ceasefire.

We were released the following day, although twice nearly killed by machine gun fire as we walked through war-ravaged Amman.

By 29 September, all hostages had been released unconditionally, but Britain, West Germany, and Switzerland chose to release Palestinian terrorists in their jails. Britain, in doing so, violated its extradition treaty with Israel.
Perhaps the most important lesson for today can be drawn from King Hussein.

After years of mollycoddling the PLO, he finally realised that there is no rationalising away terrorism or appeasing terrorists. He concluded that terrorism is a “cancer” that needs to be pursued resolutely and relentlessly until eradicated completely. Once decided, he pursued his war on terrorism with calm conviction and clarity of vision, despite criticism from other Arab countries and Western media.

He specifically appointed a prime minister of Palestinian origin to signify that he was not fighting against Palestinians, but for law and order.
By extension, we must not be reticent and need not apologise for our fight against terrorism. We are not acting against the Arab world or against Islam.

Rather we are fighting for peace and tranquility, for civilised society.
We have in our sights only those who design to murder us or destroy our way of life. Sadly, I don’t believe that the world is confronting terrorism as resolutely as it should; thus unfortunately what happened to me, or worse, can still happen today.

• David Rabb is author of the newly released Terror in Black September published by Palgrave Macmillan priced Ł13.99 hardback.