Report: Palestinians targeted former Aussie PM
Sydney Morning Herald report says cabinet documents reveal former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke faced assassination at the hands of Palestinian militants for his strong pro-Israel views 30 years ago; former Palestinian ambassador for Australia and the South Pacific says, ‘Whole plot was designed by the Israeli spy agency Mossad’
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that 30 years ago former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, then Labor Party and ACTU president, faced assassination at the hands of Palestinian militants for his strong pro-Israel views.
According to the report, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) also believed prominent pro-Jewish figures, Isi Liebler and journalist Sam Lipski, were on the hit list.
The Herald report said Cabinet documents for 1976 - released by the National Archives of Australia today under the 30-year rule - reveal security authorities and the government were deeply concerned about the rising tide of Palestinian terrorism.
Most worryingly, ASIO believed pro-Palestinian terrorists had a clear operational interest in Australia and that had been demonstrated by visits from militants, the report said.
But former Palestinian ambassador for Australia and the South Pacific Ali Kazak told the Herald that the whole plot was designed by the Israeli spy agency Mossad and accepted without investigation by ASIO.
According to the report, Kazak told the Australian Associated Press that, "It has never been the intention of Palestine to bring this (Middle East) conflict to Australia and we made this clear to ASIO."
"This was part of Mossad's campaign against Palestine."
The Herald report said that in September 1973, Abdulhamid Abdulla Azzam, a member of the military branch of Al Fatah - the principal Palestinian terror group - visited Melbourne. He was arrested on his way out, charged with immigration offences and subsequently deported, the report said.
The report said that information from the Israeli Security Service claimed he was a member of the extremist Black September group, who had launched a terror attacks in Thailand and was interested in operations against Israeli targets in Australia.
ASIO said that in 1974 Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) official Abou Rish visited Sydney and Melbourne in the guise of a journalist, the report said.
The report further stated that ASIO believed he planned to return in July or August 1975 to plan the assassination of the Israeli ambassador as part of a worldwide PFLP offensive.
'Australia could appear a soft target'
To that end, a local PFLP member improperly obtained two Australian passports, which were to be used to facilitate the visit and probably the operation, the report said. A local PFLP supporter had discussed with Rish how he could enter Australia illegally.
"It also emerged that in addition to the Israeli ambassador, three prominent Australians - R. J. Hawke, president of the ALP and ACTU, and Zionist spokesman Isi Liebler and Sam Lipski - were regarded by the PFLP as suitable targets for future attack," ASIO said in a statement.
Rish never made the trip, the report said. ASIO suggested he was needed elsewhere, possibly in France where the PFLP organization had been smashed in the security crackdown following attacks by the terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos the Jackal.
Or he may have been needed in Lebanon, then embarking on its long civil war, the report said.
ASIO offcials told the Herald that the PFLP remained interested in Australia and in November 1975 another cadre, Nubar Hovsepian, sought to visit but was refused a visa.
ASIO concluded there was evidence that Palestinian terror groups had a continuing interest in operations in Australia and that there were a small number of individuals in the local Palestinian and Arab communities who might be prepared to provide auxiliary support for a terror attack, the report said.
"In comparison to Western Europe and North America, Australia could appear a soft target," it said.
"The government has made a number of decisions which could be interpreted as unfavourable to the Palestinian cause. A pro-Palestinian terrorist attack could take place in Australia."
'Effective precautions must be maintained'
According the Herald, ASIO noted Al Fatah had a major problem in Lebanon where it faced losing its independent base, raising the prospect that extreme elements might resort to terror attacks to draw attention to their plight.
"As stringent security measures limit the ability of external terrorist to plan and conduct operations in Western Europe and North America, their attention may turn to Australia," it warned.
As it turned out that never occurred. Until the 2002 Bali bombing, Australia's worst terror attack was the bombing outside the Sydney Hilton hotel on February 13, 1978 which killed three.
The civil war in Lebanon had given Australian officials other reasons for concern, the Herald report said.
Australia had closed its Beirut embassy in March 1976 but neighboring missions in Syria and Cyprus had been swamped with the relatives of Australia's Lebanese citizens seeking to escape the fighting, the report said.
As a humanitarian gesture, Australia had eased standard immigration criteria including economic, character and health requirements, the Herald report said.
