Newspaper Article

ITALIANS SAY ABBAS MASTERMINDED SHIP HIJACKING

E.J. DIONNE Jr., Special to the New York Times

1986

Overview

The report by the Genoa magistrates, who said in March that they would bring Mr. [Mohammed Abbas] to trial as the leader of the hijackers, said he had ''created the action, chose the perpetrators, trained them for their particular task, gave the orders to the 'commando.' '' ''This case falls within the struggle of the Palestinian people,'' the report says. The Palestinians, ''having lost their own land, intend to carry out a struggle to reconquer their national territory and end the disastrous (and, at times, inhuman) effects of the new diaspora.'' The report repeatedly distinguishes Mr. [Yasir Arafat]'s policies from those of Mr. Abbas and his Palestine Liberation Front. ''The method of Arafat's struggle,'' the prosecutors said, ''is that of not bringing military episodes beyond the territory of Palestine in order not to run the risk of being accused of 'terrorism,' repudiated by patriots but necessarily attributed to them by those states against which acts of violence occur.'' The prosecutors appeared to be referring to Israel.

• Publisher: New York Times Company
• Subject: Abbas, Mohammed / ARAFAT, YASIR / Arafat, Yasser / Cruises / DIONNE, E J JR / Hijacking / Hostages / Klinghoffer, Leon / Palestinian people / SHIPS AND SHIPPING