ABSTRACT
Since 1967, Palestinian terrorism has had a fundamental impact on the world's political consciousness. This has stemmed not so much from the proportion of acts carried out by Palestinians within the total framework of all international terrorist activities—between 1968 and 1984 this was only 4.6 percent—but from the innovative nature of the acts themselves. Hijacking came to be used by the Palestinians as a means to win the release of terrorists arrested in previous activities. The first episode of this kind occurred on July 22, 1970 when an Olympic plane was hijacked; in return for its release, the perpetrators demanded the freeing of Palestinian terrorists then held in jails in Greece. In addition to hijacking, the Palestinians introduced two other types of action against civil aircraft: one involved attacks against aircraft and their passengers on the ground; and the other, the blowing up of aircraft in the air.
