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On
February 21, 1973, an Israeli aircraft shot down a peaceful Libyan
civil Boeing 727 airliner, murdering 106 innocent passengers. This
brazenly criminal act was perpetrated over the then illegally
occupied Egyptian territory of Sinai. The airliner was in distress,
and Israel’s leader, not caring about its civilian passengers of
many different nationalities, had their fighters shoot it down.
The decision to shoot
down this Libyan ai8rliner in distress was made by then Chief of
Staff of the IDF General David Elazar, acting on erroneous
intelligence data supplied by Mossad, General Zvi Zamir, and Head of
Military Intelligence, General Eli Zeira, share General Elazar’s
responsibility for the brutal massacre of these innocent civilian
airline passengers.
The responsibility of
then Minister of Defense General Moshe Dayan and then Prime Minister
Golda Meir in
this crime is also clear and established.
The following is from
the United Nations Security Council Documents in an account of the
Libyan Boeing 727 airliner massacre sent by the Ambassador of Egypt:
Upon urgent instructions
from my Government and in view of the seriousness of the situation
arising from the most brazenly criminal act perpetrated by Israeli
fighters over the occupied Egyptian territory of Sinai against a
Libyan civil Boeing 727 airliner in distress and carrying civilian
passengers of different nationalities, I would like to bring the
following points to your attention, as well as to the attention of
the members of the Security Council.
On 21 February 1973, a
Libyan airliner proceeding on a scheduled flight from Benghazi to
Cairo deviated from its original course owing to navigational
difficulties as well as to bad weather conditions.
The airliner, therefore,
accidentally over flew the occupied Egyptian territory of Sinai.
Thereupon the civil aircraft was intercepted by four Israeli
fighters and, in spite of the fact that the aircraft was
unmistakably civilian, the Israeli fighters, upon direct
instructions, cleared with the highest authorities in Israel,
treacherously and without warning attacked the airliner with cannon
fire and missiles while it was heading west. This flagrant
premeditated and barbaric act of aggression resulted in the crash of
the civil aircraft and caused the death of 106 helpless and
defenseless victims.
It is worthwhile to note
that the aircraft deviated into Sinai, which is illegally occupied
by Israel, in defiance of the principles and purposes of the Charter
of the United Nations and the numerous resolutions of the world
Organization. Had Israel respected and implemented its obligations
under the Charter and the United Nations resolution, the said
massacre would have been avoided and the innocent lives would have
been spared.
The Egyptian Government
considers the Israel act of shooting down a civilian aircraft to be
another aggression carried by Israel to new heights, as well as a
crime committed in cold blood against a civil air transport
vehicle, and, as such, it is a flagrant and serious threat to the
safety of international aviation.
The Egyptian draws
attention to the fact that Israel is callously engaged in a
premeditated campaign of massacre and mass killing in the occupied
Arab territories in particular and in the region in general.
The recent unprovoked
aggression against Lebanon, which resulted in the killing of tens of
civilians, is a case in point. It occurred on 21 February, the day
that the horrible crime against the civil aircraft occurred. Other
official Israeli terrorist operation in the Middle East needs not to
be enumerated in this respect. It is a matter of criminal record and
common indignation.
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