Kozo Okamoto, Japanese militant who took part in a 1972 Tel Aviv airport attack, dies in Beirut
BEIRUT (AP) — Kozo Okamoto, The Japanese militant who participated in the deadly attack on Tel Aviv airport more than five decades ago died in Beirut on Thursday, the Palestinian group protecting him said. He was 78 years old.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, The group, the second largest group in the Palestine Liberation Organization, said Okamoto had been ill for a long time.
Okamoto, who has rarely appeared in public since settling in Lebanon after his release from Israel, was known within the PFLP as Ahmed al-Yabani or Ahmed the Japanese.
The PFLP said in its statement that Okamoto’s journey was “marked by tremendous sacrifices spanning decades on the battlefields of the struggle in support of the Palestinian cause.” The Palestinian group added that Okamoto “never compromised or wavered, but remained true to his principles.”
Okamoto was imprisoned in Israel for 12 years for the attack on the international airport outside Tel Aviv on May 30, 1972, which was thought to have been carried out by the Japanese Red Army guerrilla group in a joint operation with the PFLP.
In the 1972 attack, Okamoto and two colleagues flew into Tel Aviv from Europe, then packed bags containing rifles and grenades and opened fire, killing 26 people and wounding dozens, according to AP reports.
Along with Okamoto, two Japanese were also injured and killed in the attack.
Okamoto was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was released in 1985 during a prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestinian guerrillas. He was later granted political asylum in Lebanon and lived there until his death.
Someone rare public performances Okamoto’s attack was carried out in May 2022 at the Beirut cemetery, where Palestinian militants and other figures are buried, to mark the 50th anniversary of the attack.
The Japanese Red Army, a violent far-left group with links to Palestinian militants, was founded in 1971 and claimed responsibility for several international attacks, including the 1975 takeover of the US Consulate in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The PFLP is a radical faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization that gained notoriety in 1970 with the simultaneous hijacking of four Western airliners and the seizure of an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris that was diverted to Entebbe, Uganda.
The PFLP said Thursday that Okamoto’s attack on the Israeli airport was in retaliation for an attack by Israeli commandos on Beirut’s international airport in 1968.
leader of the PFLP, Ahmed SaadatHe is one of the most well-known Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Saadat was accused of organizing the 2001 assassination of ultranationalist Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, who had called for the mass deportation of Palestinians.
Okamoto and four other Japanese were arrested in eastern Lebanon by Lebanese authorities in 1997 after spending years illegally in the country protected by Palestinian and Lebanese left-wing groups during the chaotic days of the 1975-90 civil war. They were tried and the four were extradited to Japan in 2000, while Okamoto became the first person to receive political asylum in Lebanon.
Japan has been requested for years He made an offer for Okamoto to be handed over by Lebanon, but Beirut repeatedly rejected this demand. He is seen as a hero by many in Lebanon and the Arab world for defending the Palestinian cause and opposing Israel.
Okamoto described himself as an “Arab resistance fighter” during his trial in Lebanon.
