Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

514 • PALESTINE LIBERATION FRONTgroup had told the other three that they would seize the cruise shiponce most of its passengers had disembarked for an overnight sightseeingtour; the ship would have only a small number of passengersand crew during the passage from Alexandria to Port Said, wherethe other sightseeing passengers were to reembark for the remainderof the cruise. These hostages would then be traded for the releaseof Palestinian terrorists held prisoner in Israel. In the course of thehijacking, the hijackers murdered an elderly Jewish American, LeonKlinghoffer, who was an invalid, and threw his body into the sea.Eventually the hijackers negotiated with the Egyptian governmentfor safe passage in return for the lives of the remaining hostagesand departed along with PLF leader Abu Abbas in an EgyptAir 737airliner bound for Tunis. Although U.S. fighter planes forced theEgyptian airplane to land at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) air base in Signolla, Sicily, the Italians claimed jurisdictionover the four terrorists and released Abu Abbas, who possessed anIraqi diplomatic passport. The other four were tried and convicted byItalian courts on charges arising from the hijacking while Abu Abbaswas later tried and convicted in absentia.The Egyptian government’s permitting the terrorists safe passageout of Egypt, followed by the U.S. military’s action forcing the Egyptiancivilian plane to land in Italy to attempt the arrest of the terroristsat a NATO base in Italian territory, followed by the Italians’ interventionforbidding the rendition of the four terrorists to the UnitedStates and allowing Abu Abbas to escape, created mutual acrimonybetween the United States, Italy, and Egypt. This debacle led to aparliamentary defeat of the government of Italian Prime MinisterBetino Craxi when a conservative political party, the Republicans,withdrew from the governing coalition in protest to the freeing ofAbu Abbas, although Craxi was able to regain a governing majoritywithin a short time. The antagonism between the United States andItaly, whose public viewed the U.S. actions as a violation of Italiansovereignty, also underscored the need for international cooperationto address the challenge of international terrorism (see GROUP OFEIGHT COUNTERTERRORISM COOPERATION).On 30 May 1990 a team of 17 members of the Abu Abbas factionof the PLF, with Libyan support, made a seaborne attack on Tel Avivbeaches using hang gliders that was quashed by the Israeli DefenseForces. Four of the PLF terrorists were killed and 13 captured. This