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Leon Klinghoffer

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Leon Klinghoffer (September 24, 1916–October 8, 1985) was a retired, wheel-chair bound appliance manufacturer from New York who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985. [1]

Hijacking and murder

Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer, a Jewish couple, were celebrating their 36th wedding anniversary with a cruise aboard the Achille Lauro. On the afternoon of October 8 1985, four Palestinian terrorists, who had hijacked the ship, shot Leon Klinghoffer, 69, in the forehead and chest as he sat in his wheelchair. The militants then forced the ship's barber and a waiter to throw his body and wheelchair overboard. Marilyn Klinghoffer, who did not witness the shooting, was told by the hijackers that he had been moved to the infirmary. She only learned the truth after the militants had left the ship at Port Said. P.L.O. Foreign Secretary Farouq Qaddumi brazenly suggested that the terminally ill Marilyn Klinghoffer had killed her husband for insurance money. [2] Initially, the terrorists were granted safe passage to Tunisia, but U.S. President Ronald Reagan ordered a U.S. fighter plane to force the get-away plane to land in Italy. After an extradition dispute due to the fact that the terrorists held Iraqi diplomatic passports, Italian prime minister Bettino Craxi allowed the terrorists to escape. [3]

The body was found by the Syrians on October 14-15 and returned to the United States around October 20. Leon Klinghoffer was buried at Beth David Memorial Park in Kenilworth, New Jersey. Four months after her husband's murder, Marilyn Klinghoffer died of colon cancer. The Klinghoffers are survived by two daughters, Ilsa and Lisa Klinghoffer.

Commemoration

After his death, his daughters established the Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer Memorial Foundation with the Anti-Defamation League. [4]The foundation combats terrorism through educational, political and legal means. The foundation is funded by undisclosed settlement paid by the PLO to the Klinghoffers to settle a lawsuit seeking damages for the PLO's role in the hijacking (Klinghoffer v. PLO, 739 F. Supp. 854 (S.D.N.Y. 1990) and Klinghoffer v. PLO, 937 F.2d 44, 50 (2d Cir. 1991)). This lawsuit spurred passage of the Antiterrorism Act of 1990 which made it easier for victims of terrorism to sue terrorists and collect civil damages for losses incurred.

The hijacking was made into a television movie in 1990, Voyage of Terror – The Achille Lauro Affair starring Burt Lancaster and Eve Marie Saint. American minimalist composer John Adams' second opera, The Death of Klinghoffer, based on the events of 1985 opened to great controversy in 1991. The concept for the opera was suggested by director Peter Sellars and it featured a libretto by Alice Goodman. The Los Angeles Opera shared in the works' commission but never presented it. A Prix Italia-winning television version of the opera, starring Sanford Sylvan and Christopher Maltman, and directed by Penny Woolcock, was screened by United Kingdom's Channel 4 in 2003.

References

  1. ^ Klinghoffer daughters recall personal tragedy at commemoration of terror victims outside Israel - Haaretz - Israel News
  2. ^ P.L.O. Aide in a Charge Against Mrs. Klinghoffer
  3. ^ Klinghoffer daughters recall personal tragedy at commemoration of terror victims outside Israel - Haaretz - Israel News
  4. ^ Klinghoffer daughters recall personal tragedy at commemoration of terror victims outside Israel - Haaretz - Israel News
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