The Red Army fights not merely for the sake of fighting but in order to conduct propaganda among the masses, organize them, arm them and help them to establish revolutionary political power. Without these objectives, fighting loses its meaning and the Red Army loses the reason for its existence.
Mao Tse Tung, December 1929
Ben Gurion International Airport, which was once widely known as Lod Airport, is situated 15 km (9 miles) southeast of Tel Aviv. It is the largest international airport in Israel and is operated by the Israeli Airports Authority, a government-run corporation. Because of the high level of threat from terrorism, security at the airport is regularly scrutinized. However, despite their vigilance, in 1972 the airport was the subject of two terrorist attacks.
The first attack on Lod Airport came on May 9, 1972, when two men hijacked a Sabena Airlines passenger plane. The terrorists held 90 passengers and 10 members of the crew inside the plane for 23 hours, before 12 Israeli soldiers, who were disguised as maintenance workers, stormed the plane and managed to rescue the hostages.
The second attack, which became known as the Lod Airport Massacre, was a joint operation by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Japanese Red Army (JRA). The JRA is an international terrorist organization formed by a small section of extremists, which carried out revolutionary activities and felonious crimes in an effort to unify the world under the name of communism. It was through their contacts with the PFLP that the JRA managed to set up a base in the Middle East.
This attack, which occurred later the same month on May 30, was carried out by three members of the terrorist group, the JRA. Kozo Okamoto, Tsuyoshi Okudaira and Yasuyuki Yasuda had all been trained by the JRA at their base in Baalbek in Lebanon. They arrived at Lod Airport on board Air France Flight 132, a Boeing 707 jet. Dressed conservatively and carrying slim cases, the three men attracted little attention as they mingled with the remainder of the passengers leaving the plane. Security was always on the lookout for Palestinians, but they did not consider the Japanese as a major threat. Once inside the airport waiting area, the three terrorists grabbed automatic firearms from their carry-on luggage and opened fire on both airport staff and fellow passengers. The airport security staff acted quickly, but before they could get the situation under control 24 people had been killed and a further 78 injured. The majority of the victims were pilgrims who had been on a ten-day trip to the Holy Land. Yasuda was killed by the Israeli security guards. Okudaira, on the other hand, had moved from the airport building onto a landing strip and, after firing at passengers who were disembarking from an El Al aircraft, committed suicide by using a hand grenade. The third member of the JRA, Okamoto, was severely wounded but survived. He was tried by the Israelis and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Kozo Okamoto was released from prison in May 1985 with other prisoners in an exchange bargain with the PFLP. Okamoto quickly fled to Lebanon and lived in Beka’a Valley until he was re-arrested in 1997. In 2000 he was granted political refugee status in Lebanon and eventually disappeared, but he is rumoured to be living somewhere in North Korea.
Today Ben-Gurion Airport is heavily guarded and every passenger is not only thoroughly searched but has to go through vigorous questioning.