Cape Town - Palestinian activist Leila Khaled - once dubbed “the poster girl of the Palestinian (political liberation) struggle” when she became the first woman to hijack a passenger jet in 1969 - is visiting South Africa next month.
Khaled will be speaking at dinners and luncheons in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town as a guest of the
Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) South Africa to help in its efforts to raise funds.
Khaled’s hijack experience has been turned into a movie, Leila Khaled: Hijacker, and written into a book, Leila Khaled Icon: of Palestinian Liberation. She had also met Nelson Mandela when he was still president.
The BDS said Khaled’s passenger jet hijacking had a major impact at the time and was in the league of political figures such as Che Guevara and South Africa’s Ruth First.
Michael Freeman, deputy ambassador and spokesman for the Israeli embassy, said Khaled was a self-confessed hijacker and someone who believed violence was the mainstay to advance her aims.
“She is a member of the politburo of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) organisation that massacred four Jewish worshippers in West Jerusalem last month.
“When we are seeing the world protesting in Paris against terrorism, the visit of Lelia Khaled goes against the values that South Africa and the world stands for.
“The PFLP is responsible for some of the most gruesome terror attacks, including the murder of the Fogel family, where they decapitated a baby,” Freeman said.
The BDS quoted Khaled as having said that “I have learnt that a woman can be a fighter, a freedom fighter, a political activist, and that she can fall in love and be loved”.
Cape Times