Newspaper Page Text
Shamir defends interception
as Syria demands meeting
by Hugh Orgel
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Following
the interception and forced land
ing of a private Libyan plane by the
Israeli air force Tuesday, Foreign
Minister Yitzhak Shamir said the
interception was “one of the means
we have to resort to in order to
defend ourselves.”
Addressing delegates to the meet
ing of the Zionist General Council
in Jerusalem, Shamir said that
since Libya is a known “center of
international terrorism” and the
Libyan government aids terrorists
who perpetrate acts of violence
against Israelis and Jews, “when
reports reach us of such dangers,
Israel has the right to take steps to
prevent acts of murder and terror.”
Israel Air Force jets intercepted
the plane bound from Libya to
Damascus, Syria, Tuesday and
forced it to land at a military air
field in northern Israel to check out
its passengers for possible terror
ists. None were found, and the air
craft was released at 6:30 p.m. local
time, after 4'/2 hours, and allowed
to proceed to its destination.
Syria demanded an immediate
meeting of the United Nations Se
curity Council to take up the inci
dent, which it described as piracy,
Damascus radio reported. Tripoli
radio in Libya also branded the
incident as an act of piracy and
accused the United States as abet-
Yitzhak Shamir
ting it.
Israeli officials said the aircraft
was intercepted because there was
reason to believe that dangerous
terrorists were aboard. They
claimed Israel had a legal right to
force the plane to land for interro
gation as part of the internation
ally sanctioned campaign to com
bat terrorism.
Only Syrian political figures were
aboard the plane. One was identi
fied as Abdallah El-Akhner, dep
uty secretary-general of the Syrian
Ba’ath party. The passengers and
crew were well treated, the IDF said.
The army radio said the plane
was a twin-engined Gulf Stream
executive jet carrying nine pas
sengers and a crew of three. It took
off from Tripoli at 12:30 p.m.
Tuesday and was intercepted shortly
before 2 p.m. local time. Accord
ing to Tripoli radio the pilot re
ported 55 miles east of Cyprus,
nearing the Syrian coast, that he
was being tailed by unidentified
aircraft. A report from an airfield
in northern Cyprus said the inter
ceptors were two Israeli jets. Tri
poli radio said contact was lost
with the plane after the pilot re
ported that he was being followed.
Libya charged that the U.S. Sixth
Fleet, operating off its coast, helped
the Israelis identify and pinpoint
the plane.
On Feb. 22, 1973, Israeli air
force jets shot down a Libyan
commercial airliner en route from
Benghazi to Cairo, which had
strayed into Israeli air space over
the Sinai. Israel subsequently paid
$300,000 indemnification to the
families of the 108 airline passengers
and crew who died.
Israel admitted the error, which,
it said, occurred because the Libyan
pilot ignored internationally rec
ognized signals to land and ap
peared to take evasive action, leav
ing Israeli jets to believe the aircraft
was in fact military.
In Washington, a State De
partment spokesman said of Tues
day’s incident, “There was no U.S.
involvement of any kind.”
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THEREFORE, be it resolved that we, the rabbis of Metropolitan Atlanta, urge every member of the Jewish community
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PAGE 7 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE February 7, 1986