Khaled+Biography

= =

= **Her Story﻿** =

**The Beginning**

Leila Khaled was born in Haifa 1944. She was a young girl when the arab - israeli conflic ﻿ t broke out, this was a war of terror on the indigenous Arab Palestinians. They fled after massacres of civilians by the Stern Gang, a militant Zionist organisation. In April 1948 Leila and her mother and 7 other children had to flee to Lebanon, leaving her father behind. Her father was a revolutionist so he was with the people who were defending the country. She became one of 750 000 refugees displaced by the war.Her family, like all the others, grew up experiencing the poverty of war. At 15, Khaled committed herself to the Palestinian struggle, she joined the Arab nationalist movement and immersed herself in political activism.

She was a student and activist at the American University of Beirut (AUB) from 1962 to 1963, but had to leave because of financial difficulties. In 1968, at PFLP (Popular front for the liberation of Palestine) accepted her into its special operations squad. She became one of the first female PFLP freedom fighters. Khaled became famous when she and a colleague hijacked a TWA airplane travelling from Rome to Athens on 29 August 1969. The plan was to fly the plane directly to Damascus, but after taking control of the plane she forced the pilot to fly over her childhood home town of Haifa. The plane then continued to its final destination and landed in Damascus, when all the passenger exited the plane, they detonated the bombs on board - no one was hurt but the plane completely destroyed.

=
//"I have a cause higher and nobler than my own, a cause to which all private interests and concerns must be Subordinated."// =====

=
When she appeared unrecognisable as Leila Khaled, she was allowed to continue her career as a Hijacker and begin her next mission. On September 6, 1970 Khaled and a colleague attempted to hijack a El Al flight from Amsterdam to New York. The mission was foiled when the they tried to take control of the plane. A flight attendant was killed when khaleds colleague shot him - this went against khaled's strict instructions to not hurt the passengers. Air marshalls were on board and retook control of the plane. Khaleds colleague was shot dead by one of the air marshalls while the other overpowered khaled who had hold of two live grenades. The passengers on board attacked khaled who was nearly beaten to death. The plane made an emergency landing at Heathrow airport were Leila Khaled was arrested. =====

On October 1, the British government released her as part of a prisoner exchange with the PFLP. She was exchanged because the PHLP hijacked a plane with 300 hostages and demanded Khaleds release.

**Later in life**

She became involved in politics by joining the Palestinian national council and by attending world social forum annually. She was married for two years, before she experienced an identity crisis that ended up destroying her marriage. She had more plastic surgery to under her mistakes. Her younger sister and her husband were murdered as the couple was mistaken as Leila Khaled and her husband. She strayed from the spotlight in the late 80's, but re-emerged frequently attend the world social forum. She remarried and is now living with her husband and two sons in Jordan. A documentary film featuring the life of Leila Khaled was released in 2006 that described the life of the first female terrorist, "Hijacker – The Life of Leila Khaled" was directed by Palestinian filmmaker, Lina Makboul.