Leila Khaled

thumb|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) I was looking forward to finding out what you wanted to know from me about the security of aviation. On why she agreed to do an interview with Philip Baum of Aviation Security (5 Sep 2000) 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 hijacked 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 hijacked. 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) The leadership chose to go for the Oslo Accords [in 1991], thinking that this was a step forward in achieving the main rights of the Palestinians. Some people believed this, but they discovered, after twenty years, that it was nonsense. It brought catastrophe on us. There are more settlements than ever, twice more than before Oslo, the number of settlers has doubled, more land is being confiscated, and, of course, the Wall has been built. The apartheid wall. Israel is an apartheid state. Interview with The Palestine Chronicle (7 Apr 2014) There’s a fundamental equation: where there is occupation, there is resistance. Nobody can change this. This is basic, it’s natural; you cannot change the sun and make it rise from the west. This is the truth; it is natural. When you are under oppression, you resist. Interview with +972 Magazine (17 May 2014) We don’t care about being Christian or Muslim or Jews. This is about the rights of people. We’re not targeting Jews. We are targeting occupants. Interview with IOL (6 Feb 2015) I am a freedom fighter, whatever that means or whatever the media that is controlled by Zionism and the imperialists say. They can give us or label us whatever they want. I say occupation is terrorism. Zionism is terrorism. Imperialists are terrorists. They are the ones who create wars against the people of the world. I don’t know what they label us, but I know myself as a part of my people’s struggle as a freedom fighter. When asked if she is a terrorist in an interview with Euronews (30 Jun 2016) I never had a whole pencil, always half. My mother used to cut it into two so every child could go to school. Explaining the poverty of her childhood as a refugee to Vice (4 Aug 2016) I apologized to the passengers. We didn’t hurt anyone. The passengers were all released and went back to their homes - but we didn’t go back to our homes. I didn’t care if I was the first woman hijacking a plane or not, I just wanted to do something for our cause. Interview with New Internationalist (25 Jul 2023) Now Israel wants to say that they are attacking Hamas, but the children are not Hamas, women are not Hamas. They are attacking our people, and it’s a genocide attack this time. Interview with Capire (27 Oct 2023) Now there are no more secrets. Everything is exposed, both audio and video, and no matter how much the Western media tries to spread misinformation and illusions, it will not be able to cover the image. Interview with Peoples Dispatch (17 Jan 2024) In 1969, Wadie Haddad asked me if I was ready to die, and I said yes. He then asked if I was ready for imprisonment, to which I said that we entered this path knowing the risks and there are already many of our Palestinian comrades in prisons due to military operations. I understood what it meant to be imprisoned by the occupation. Then he went on to ask me if I was ready to hijack a plane. Interview with Mondoweiss (23 Dec 2024) External links Category:1944 births Category:Living people Category:Marxists Category:Palestinian nationalists Category:Left-wing nationalists Category:Atheists Category:Organizations and people designated as terrorist Category:People from Haifa Category:People charged with crimes Category:Refugees Category:Women politicians in Palestine Category:Women born in the 1940s