Palestinian terrorist attacks in 1969 and 1970 against Switzerland
In 1969 and 1970 , Switzerland was suddenly targeted by Palestinian terrorists . Three attacks on Swiss air traffic shook the country. A total of 51 people, including one terrorist, lost their lives in the attacks by the Palestinian terrorists . Two Swissair aircraft were destroyed.
February 18, 1969: Assassination attempt at Zurich-Kloten airport
On February 18, 1969 four opened Fatah - bombers on the Zurich airport fire on a plane of the Israeli airline El Al . The copilot died in the hail of bullets. The Israeli security guard Mordechai Rachamim shot and killed one of the four assassins.
February 21, 1970: Bomb attack on Swissair flight 330
On February 21, 1970, the Swissair flight 330 crashed after a package bomb exploded near Würenlingen . All 47 people on board the Convair CV-990 died. The attack by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was actually aimed at the Israeli airline El-Al. Due to a delay in an El-Al machine, the parcel that had been posted in Munich the day before was diverted to the Swissair machine. The package was addressed to an imaginary address in Jerusalem . It was only on the Swissair flight to Tel Aviv that the bomb equipped with an altimeter exploded in the hold of the aircraft. The pilots tried to fly back to Zurich-Kloten Airport. However, thick smoke in the cabin made orientation impossible. The plane finally crashed into a forest near Würenlingen.
September 6, 1970: Swissair flight 100 was hijacked
Shortly after the start of the Swissair flight SR100 from Zurich to New York JFK , the DC-8 HB-IDD was hijacked by terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). There were 143 passengers and 12 crew members on board. The pilots were forced to fly to Jordan and had to land at the so-called Dawson Field , a disused airfield of the British Army near the city of Zarqa . Almost at the same time, two other planes, one from BOAC and one from TWA, were hijacked by PFLP terrorists. The hijacking of a fourth plane from the Israeli airline El Al by a group led by Leila Chaled failed. The kidnappers demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages. A fifth machine of the British airline BOAC was brought under his control by a PFLP sympathizer on September 9, 1970 and used as leverage for the release of Leila Chaled, who had been arrested in London. The plane also landed on Dawson Field . All around 300 hostages were finally released after long negotiations. The terrorists then blew up the three planes as a token of their power. These events became known as part of what is known as Black September .
Thesis of a standstill agreement between Switzerland and the PLO
At the beginning of 2016, Marcel Gyr , book author and journalist at the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , put forward the thesis in a book and a series of articles that the then Foreign Minister, Federal Councilor Pierre Graber , through the mediation of the then National Councilor Jean Ziegler , with the then openly terrorist Palestinian Liberation Organization PLO would have concluded a secret standstill agreement. From now on, Switzerland should be spared further terrorist attacks. In return, Switzerland would have campaigned for the diplomatic recognition of the PLO at the UN headquarters in Geneva . According to Gyr, the secret talks with Farouk Kaddoumi , a high-ranking PLO official, took place in a hotel room in Geneva. Ziegler is keeping a low profile as to whether he was also present at the negotiations: “I won't say anything about that. Every now and then one of the closest people involved asked my opinion. Point."
Against these claims are many statements by leaders of the PFLP themselves that the PLO had no influence on the PFLP. Graber's personal colleague Franz Blankart said of Gyr's book: "There was no such agreement," while the historian Aviva Guttmann is of the opinion, based on records from Federal Council meetings, that the idea has been rejected. In February 2016, Pierre Graber's agenda, which is in the La Chaux-de-Fonds municipal library , was available online. Franz Blankart studied the agenda and found no trace of secret negotiations.
Switzerland was spared from Palestinian terrorist attacks from October 1970, but was soon confronted with demands from Palestinian diplomats. In 1977, Graber promised Kaddoumi an official reception in the Federal Palace. Pierre Aubert , Graber's successor, refused twice to actually see the Palestinian functionary. Ziegler claims for himself and Graber that he acted “with good intent”. They wanted to save the country and its people from further harm after a unique series of terrorist attacks.
By February 2016, there was not a single written evidence that Foreign Minister Pierre Graber had concluded a secret deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in September 1970.
On February 14th, Jean Ziegler, an important witness to the secret agreement thesis, changed his statement in an interview with the Sunday newspaper and contradicted himself. He was no longer sure whether such a secret deal actually existed. “To this day I am confused and astonished that there was no indictment and not even an international arrest warrant. But I don't know what the reasons for the federal prosecutor's passivity were, ”said Ziegler. Ziegler also does not know for sure whether there actually was a secret agreement that would have prevented the Federal Prosecutor at the time, Hans Walder, from bringing charges. Graber could not have concluded such a deal himself. This would at least have required the complicity of the then Minister of Justice, Federal Councilor Ludwig von Moos .
Reactions and work-up
After reports of an alleged secret agreement, Tzach Sarid, Israeli deputy ambassador in Switzerland, sharply criticized such an agreement. Experience shows that giving in to terror promotes it, said Tzach Sarid. Terror must be fought by fighting back. Negotiations are the wrong way.
Several parliamentarians called for a complete political, but also historical, processing of the events of 1970. They will undertake parliamentary approaches to this end. Shortly after the secret agreement became known, it was still unclear whether the GPK business audit commission of both councils would take action on its own initiative.
On January 27, the Federal Council decided to set up a federal working group. This is to deal with the relations between Switzerland and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the 1970s. The Department of Justice and Police (FDJP), the Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA) and the Department of Defense (DDPS) are involved in the working group.
At the beginning of February, after a joint meeting, the business audit commissions of both councils classified the secret agreement with the PLO as serious. They demanded that the Federal Council quickly and completely deal with the matter and that the supervisory authority of the Federal Prosecutor's Office clarify whether the criminal investigations were impaired. At this point in time, the business audit committees do not want to open their own investigations.
Several contemporary witnesses, including Franz Blankart , former State Secretary and personal assistant to the then Foreign Minister Pierre Graber, expressed doubts about the existence of an agreement with the PLO. Former federal prosecutor Carla Del Ponte also stated that in 1995, during an investigation into the plane crash in Würenlingen, she found no evidence of a secret agreement that prevented the investigation of the terrorist attack.
The interdepartmental working group set up by the Federal Council published its final report on May 10, 2016. It says: “Based on the hundreds of dossiers evaluated, the written answers from people who may have new information on this topic, and the information provided by the author of the book, the working group comes to the following conclusion: There was no secret agreement which was completed in Geneva in September 1970 (...). " There is also nowhere a reference to "an obstruction of the clarifications and investigations of the federal law enforcement authorities in Würenlingen".
Legal prosecution
Case at Zurich Airport
The trial of the three surviving Palestinian terrorists as well as the Israeli security officers took place shortly before Christmas 1969 under great security precautions before the jury in Winterthur . The three Palestinians (2 men and 1 woman) were each sentenced to 12 years in prison. The Israeli security officer was granted self-defense and acquitted on the principle of " in dubio pro reo ", in case of doubt for the accused. The investigations as well as the process were under great international observation, especially from the Arab world. Switzerland was accused of bias in favor of Israel.
Case in Würenlingen
The bomb attack on Swissair flight 330 and the crash of the Convair CV-990 near Würenlingen, with 47 fatalities, is the greatest crime in recent Swiss history. To date, the crime has not been solved and suspects have not been caught.
George Habasch , a former doctor at the children's hospital in Zurich, claimed to be the client for the bomb attack . After returning home, he founded the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (FPLP). From the beginning, the 28-year-old Jordanian, Sufian Radi Kaddoumi, was under urgent suspicion. He was a member of a militant Palestinian command group and is said to have brought the bomb package to the post office in Munich together with Badawi Jawher, a third suspect . On the same day they fled from Germany to Jordan. Kaddoumi is said to have died in 1996, while Badawi Jawher is said to be still alive. As early as December 1, 1970, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) had unequivocally identified the two main perpetrators.
The two terrorists posted a total of two packages in Munich. The second package exploded on an Austrian Airlines flight . However, the explosion went off lightly. The machine was able to make an emergency landing and no one was harmed.
No criminal proceedings were taken against the three suspects. As in the Zurich Airport case, District Attorney Robert Akeret was responsible for the investigations on behalf of the Federal Prosecutor's Office. For him, the culprit was beyond doubt. At the end of 1970 he personally handed over the final report to Federal Prosecutor Hans Walder in Bern. The Federal Prosecutor should have brought charges shortly after the Geneva Standstill Agreement, but this never happened. Akeret soon got the impression that a cloak of silence was being spread over the case in Bern. Until the secret standstill agreement was discovered, the bereaved lived with the uncertainty as to why those responsible were never held accountable.
Resumption of the Würenlingen proceedings
In 1995, the then federal prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte , reopened the "Würenlingen" case, despite the statute of limitations that had expired in 1990 , but closed the case again in 2000. In contrast to Switzerland, the federal German judiciary never closed the criminal proceedings in the case of the attack in Würenlingen; However, charges were never brought in Germany.
In an interview with Radio SRF 1 on February 5, 2016, Del Ponte contradicted the assumption that the Federal Council had stopped the investigation into the terrorist attack on the Swissair plane in Würenlingen because of a secret agreement with the PLO. In 1995, she saw no decision by the Swiss government in the files to prevent the investigation into the terrorist attack. Her motivation for the retrial was always justice for the victims. That's why she pulled out the Würenlingen files again 25 years after the attack. Since she was appointed chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague in 2000 , she did not see why the proceedings had been closed so quickly.
Zarqa case
The hijackers of Swissair flight 100 were never charged.
In exchange for the release of a total of around 300 hostages, Switzerland released the three Palestinian terrorists who were sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1969 from Zurich Airport. The release took place in consultation with Germany and Great Britain. Germany also released three Palestinian assassins from German prisons and Great Britain deported air pirate Leila Khaled despite violent protests from Israel. The seven terrorists were flown together to Cairo on the night of October 1, 1970.
With the decision to release the terrorists, the state government bent the law. It was clear to everyone involved that the authority to release the assassins rests solely with the Court of Cassation of the Canton of Zurich. That is why the entire Federal Council described the release as "outside of the law" and asserted a "supra-legal emergency for humanitarian reasons". "We are dealing with an action that does not allow any academic discussion," said Federal Councilor Pierre Graber, justifying the controversial decision. It later became known that the state government and the Zurich government council had already met for a secret crisis meeting at the end of July . After the guilty verdict in the Winterthur trial in December 1969, the authorities expected an act of revenge by the Palestinians. At that time it was agreed that any demands made by kidnappers would be granted immediately.
literature
- Marcel Gyr : Swiss Terror Years: The Secret Agreement with the PLO . NZZ Libro, Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-03810-145-1 .
Web links
- SRG timeline: Swiss television reports on the subject of “Terrorism in Switzerland”.
- SRF archive: Airplane crash in Würenlingen (1970) (video 6 minutes on YouTube ).
- Communication of January 20, 2016: Switzerland and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The article "Jean Ziegler secret mission" (NZZ of 20 January 2016 p 15) in the database Dodis the Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sensitive deal with terrorists in Tages-Anzeiger from January 20, 2016.
- ↑ Marcel Gyr: Arab Terror in Switzerland (2/4): With the Royal Air Force to freedom in Neue Zürcher Zeitung from December 29, 2014.
- ↑ Remo Hess: Did the Würenlingen crash go unpunished because the Federal Council had a deal with PLO terrorists? in Aargauer Zeitung from January 20, 2016.
- ^ A b Marcel Gyr: Arab Terror in Switzerland (4/4): When the world held its breath in Neue Zürcher Zeitung from December 31, 2014.
- ↑ a b Ziegler: “Graber violated the rule of law to protect the people” in SRF.ch from January 20, 2016
- ↑ Federal Council was against negotiations with the PLO , Tages-Anzeiger, February 6, 2016
- ↑ a b Graber's secret crisis agenda in Tages-Anzeiger of February 12, 2016
- ↑ Marcel Gyr: Federal Councilor Grabers Going It alone: Swiss agreement with PLO revealed , Neue Zürcher Zeitung of January 20, 2016.
- ↑ Marcel Gyr: Swiss Terror Years Jean Ziegler's Secret Mission , Neue Zürcher Zeitung of January 20, 2016.
- ↑ Ziegler does not know anything about the deal in the Sunday newspaper on February 14, 2016
- ↑ Secret agreement with the PLO: Complete clarification required in Neue Zürcher Zeitung of January 20, 2016.
- ↑ Federal Council sets up working group on secret agreements with PLO in Neue Zürcher Zeitung on January 27, 2016
- ↑ Christof Forster: PLO secret agreement: Parliament demands quick clarification from the Federal Council in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung of February 2, 2016
- ↑ «There was no secret deal with the PLO» , Tages-Anzeiger , February 6, 2016.
- ↑ Del Ponte had “no reference” to secret agreements with the PLO , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , February 5, 2016.
- ↑ Federal government closes secret deal with the PLO in the Tages-Anzeiger on May 11, 2016
- ↑ NZZ reporter defends himself against doubts about PLO secret deal - when will you bring the evidence, Marcel Gyr? in Blick online from May 19, 2016
- ↑ Switzerland - Palestine: The supervisory authority finds no indications of influence in the PLO case in Blick online from May 25, 2016
- ↑ Marcel Gyr: Arab Terror in Switzerland (1/4): A dark suspicion in Neue Zürcher Zeitung from December 27, 2014.
- ↑ Marcel Gyr: Arab Terror in Switzerland (3/4): The man behind the assassin in Neue Zürcher Zeitung from December 30, 2014.
- ^ Walter Senn: Crimes without atonement in Die Weltwoche , edition 9/2009.
- ↑ Marcel Gyr: Terror in Switzerland: Swissair crash in Würenlingen remains unpunished in Neue Zürcher Zeitung from September 15, 2014.
- ↑ The agonizing desire for clarity in the Migros magazine of January 18, 2016.
- ↑ Marcel Gyr: Swiss Terror Years: Del Ponte's strange role in the Würenlingen case in Neue Zürcher Zeitung from January 21, 2016.
- ↑ Del Ponte: No political influence in the Würenlingen case in Radio SRF 1 of February 5, 2016