San Francisco State University is scheduled to host a lecture by terrorist Leila Khaled later this month. Khaled is most famous for her role in two plane hijackings that took place in 1969 and 1970. Khaled, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is considered to be the first female airplane hijacker, and will lecture SFSU students at an event hosted by the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diaspora Studies Department.
According to a report by Campus Reform, San Francisco State University has invited terrorist Leila Khaled to speak at an upcoming event on “gender, justice & resistance.”
In 1969, Khaled was one of several hijackers that took control of TWA Flight 840 from Rome to Tel Aviv. Although no one was injured, the hijackers blew up the nose of the plane upon its landing.
In 1970, Khaled and a partner hijacked El Al Flight 219 from Amsterdam to New York City. The attack was thwarted when Khaled was subdued by Israeli air marshals. Her partner, who shot a member of the flight crew, was killed during his encounter with the air marshals. Although Khaled had two grenades with her during the attack, no passengers were injured.
A spokesperson for San Francisco State University defended the decision to invite Khaled, claiming that the lecture will give students an opportunity to hear “divergent” ideas.
“Higher education and the college experience are an opportunity to hear divergent ideas, viewpoints and accounts of life experiences. An important outcome of the college experience is to learn to think critically and come to independent, personal conclusions about events of local and global importance,” the spokesperson said.
“A university is a marketplace of ideas, and San Francisco State University supports the rights of all individuals to express their viewpoints and other speech protected by law, even when those viewpoints may be controversial,” the spokesperson added.
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