Schönau and the Eagles of the Palestinian Revolution: refugees, guerillas, and human rights in the global 1970s

Abstract

In September 1973 a group of Palestinian guerillas attacked a train carrying Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union to Austria for relocation to Israel. The ensuing international crisis exposed the intricate web of political relations behind this flow of refugees and drew worldwide attention to the conflict between the human rights of Jewish refugees immigrating to Israel and those of Palestinian refugees who wished to return to their homeland. Ultimately, the Schönau incident would illuminate the contested nature of humanitarian concerns in the 1970s and the wider Cold War era.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Sarah Snyder, Ryan Irwin, Lien-Hang Nguyen, Sophie Roberts, and the two anonymous reviewers for providing comments on versions of this essay.

Notes

1 Moyn, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 2010), 311.

2 The literature on human rights and global history includes Roland Burke, Decolonization and the Evolution of International Human Rights (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2010); Moyn, The Last Utopia; Lynn Hunt, Inventing Human Rights: A History (New York: W.W. Norton, 2007); Sarah Snyder, Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2011); Michael Cotey Morgan, ‘The Seventies and the Rebirth of Human Rights’, in The Shock of the Global: The 1970s in Perspective, ed. Niall Ferguson, Charles Maier, Erez Manela, and Daniel Sargent (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010); Kenneth Cmiel, ‘The Emergence of Human Rights Politics in the United States', Journal of American History 86, no. 3 (December 1999); Hunt, Jeffrey Wasserstrom, and Marilyn Young, eds., Human Rights and Revolutions (Lanham: Rowan and Litttlefield, 2000); Paul Gordon Lauren, The Evolution of International Human Rights (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998).

3 On Soviet Jews, see Gal Beckerman, When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2010); Noam Kochavi, Nixon and Israel (Albany: SUNY Press, 2009); Baruch Gurevitz, Open Gates: The Story Behind the Mass Immigration to Israel from the Soviet Union and its Successor States (Jerusalem: Jewish Agency, 1996); Murray Freeman and Albert Chernin, eds., A Second Exodus: The American Movement to Free Soviet Jews (Brandeis University Press, 1999).

4 For a provocative collection of essays on the 1970s as a pivotal decade in the process of globalisation, see Niall Ferguson, Erez Manela, Charles Maier, Daniel Sargent, eds., The Shock of the Global (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 2010).

5 Odd Arne Westad, ‘The Cold War and the International History of the Twentieth Century’, in The Cambridge History of the Cold War, ed. Melvyn Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 10.

6 On the importance of transnational human rights and the end of the Cold War see Snyder, Human Rights Activism and the End of the Cold War.

7 Moyn, The Last Utopia, 4.

8 For a moving account of the struggle of Soviet Jews seeking to flee the Soviet Union, see Gal Beckerman, When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2010).

9 Terence Smith, ‘Guerillas Seize 3 Soviet Jews on Train, Then Release them in Austrian Deal’, New York Times, 29 September 1973.

10 ‘Report by Ministerial Counselor Erben, Ministry of the Interior, on the events at Vienna/Schechat Airport’, ‘Report by the Psychiatrists Professor Friedrich Hacker and Dr. Willibald Sluga’, and ‘Report by A. Massak, colonel of police and explosives expert in the Ministry of the Interior’, in The Events of September 28th and 29th 1973: A Documentary Report, ed. Federal Chancellery, Vienna (Vienna: Norbertus, 1973), 50–61.

11 ‘Manifesto issued by the Eagles of the Palestinian Revolution during the groups involvement in the Schoenau incident’, 28 September 1973, International Documents on Palestine (Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1973), 469; ‘Aide-memoire by Dr. E. Schuller, Director of Security for Lower Austria,’ The Events of September 28th and 29th 1973: A Documentary Report, ed. Federal Chancellery, Vienna (Vienna: Norbertus, 1973), 73–79; ‘Terrorists leave Austria,’ Chicago Tribune, 29 September 1973.

12 Terence Smith, ‘Guerillas Seize 3 Soviet Jews on Train, Then Release them in Austrian Deal’, New York Times, 29 September 1973.

13 ‘Jewish camp kept obscure’, Chicago Tribune, 3 October 1973; Terence Smith, ‘For Jews from Soviet, Fear and Joy in Vienna’, New York Times, 28 September 1973.

14 Harry Trimborn, ‘Israel Astonished, Bitter Over Austrian Transit Camp Closure’, Los Angeles Times, 30 September 1973.

15 Harry Trimborn, ‘Israel Astonished, Bitter Over Austrian Transit Camp Closure’, Los Angeles Times, 30 September 1973

16 See Otmar Holl, ‘The Foreign Policy of the Kreisky Era’, in The Kreisky Era in Austria, ed. Gunter Bischof et al. (New Bruswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1994), 43–44.

17 ‘Austrians Asked to Keep Camp’, Hartford Courant, 1 October 1973; Terence Smith, ‘Israelis Are Hopeful’, New York Times, 2 October 1973.

18 ‘Israel Opposes Austrian Decision on Transit Facilities’, New York Times, 30 September 1973.

19 Homan, ‘Austria Seeks Émigré Plan.’

20 Terence Smith, ‘A Triumph of Terror over Compassion’, New York Times, 30 September 1973; ‘Surrender to Terror’, New York Times, 1 October 1973; ‘Yielding to Blackmail’, 2 October 1973.

21 Max Lerner, ‘Stirrings of a World Community’, Los Angeles Times, 5 October 1973.

22 Robert Alden, ‘Eban, at U.N., Assails Austrian Decision’, New York Times, 4 October 1973.

23 Robert Alden, ‘Eban, at U.N., Assails Austrian Decision’, New York Times, 4 October 1973

24 ‘Terrorist Success’, New York Times, 4 October 1973.

25 Fatah, ‘Statement by the Palestine National Liberation Movement “Fateh” to the United Nations on the Legality and Objectives of the Palestinian Resistance’, 17 October 1968, IDP, 451.

26 It should be noted that although the Fatah was not involved in the Austrian attack, the organisation was one of the intellectual lodestars of the Palestinian liberation struggle, which minor groups like the Eagles of the Palestinian Revolution would have looked to for inspiration. Nevertheless, there is no evidence to suggest that Fatah was directly involved in the Shoenau incident. Fatah, ‘The Heroic Challenge Against Neo-Nazism’, Address to the United Nations Conference on Human Rights, 27 April 1968 (Beirut: Palestine National Liberation Movement, al-Fateh, 1968), Institute for Palestine Studies, Beirut.

27 ‘Al Fath Parle’, Jeune Afrique, No. 383 (12 May 1968) 13, 50; for the rise in global support for the PLO, see Paul Chamberlin, The Global Offensive: The United States, the PLO, and the Making of the New International Order (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, Forthcoming).

28 Harry Trimborn, ‘Camp Closure Pleases Arabs in West Bank’, Los Angeles Times, 5 October 1973.

29 ‘Austria and the Soviet Jews’, Christian Science Monitor, 2 October 1973.

30 ‘Had Threefold Goal in Austria, Terrorists Say’, Los Angeles Times, 1 October 1973.

31 Harry Trimborn, ‘Camp Closure Pleases Arabs in West Bank.’

32 ‘Bayan Munathama ‘Nasur al'Thawra al-Filastiniya’ huwal Qarar al-Nimsa bi-‘Aglaq Mu'askar ‘Shonaw’ fi wahaha al-Mahajrin al-Yahud’, 1 October 1973; Al-Watha'iq al-Filastiniyyah al-Arabiyah (Beirut: al-Mu'assasat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyyah, 1976); ‘Sadat Aide Dispatched To Austria’, Washington Post, 3 October 1973; Robert Houghton to DOS, ‘Beirut Reaction to Arab Terrorist Operation in Austria’, 1 October 1973, AAD.

33 Terence Smith, ‘Israelis Are Hopeful.’

34 Homan, ‘Austrians Like Decision on Jews Despite World Reaction.’

35 Humes quoted in Rush, ‘Kreisky-Meir Meeting and Afternath’, 4 October 1973, AAD.

36 ‘Extracts from a statement by Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky to the National Assembly on October 23rd 1973’, in The Events of September 28th and 29th 1973: A Documentary Report, ed. Federal Chancellery, Vienna (Vienna: Norbertus, 1973), 38.

37 Robert Aldens, ‘Austrian Tells of Bargain with Gunmen’, New York Times, 5 October 1973; Richard Homan, ‘Austrian Deal With Arabs Hit’, Washington Post, 20 September 1973.

38 Quoted in John Humes to Department of State (DOS), ‘Press Reaction to Terrorist Attack’, 1 October 1973, Central Foreign Policy Files, Access to Archival Databases, National Archives, United States, archives.gov (henceforth AAD).

39 Humes to DOS, ‘Foreign Office Comment on Terrorist Incident’, 29 September 1973, AAD.

40 Humes to DOS, ‘Foreign Office Comment on Terrorist Incident’, 29 September 1973, AAD

41 ‘Gelandeskizze von Schloss Schoenau,gezeichnet am 20.2.1973, von GARIR Guergues’, ‘Von GARIR gezeichnete Skizz uber Schloss Schoenau’, ‘Von Samir Ahmed ISSA am 19.2.1973 gezeichnete Skizze. Angeblicher Eisatzort, anlich dem Areal von Schloss Schoenau’, and ‘The Threat to the transit camp at Schoenau by Arab terrorists’, in The Events of September 28th and 29th 1973, ed. Federal Chancellery; Richard Homan, ‘Austria Seeks Émigré Plan’, Washington Post, 6 October 1973.

42 ‘Extracts from a statement by Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky to the National Assembly on October 23rd 1973’, in The Events of September 28th and 29th 1973: A Documentary Report, ed. Federal Chancellery, Vienna (Vienna: Norbertus, 1973); See also Chamberlin, The Global Offensive; Sarah Gainham, ‘Austria as World's New Villain – A Case of Misunderstanding’, Los Angeles Times, 7 October 1973.

43 Shannon, ‘Rejected Nixon's Plea Because of Soviet Factor, Austria Says’, 5 October 1973; Aldens, ‘Austrian Tells of Bargain with Gunmen’, New York Times, 5 October 1973; Richard Homan, ‘Austrians Like Decision on Jews Despite World Reaction’, Washington Post, 5 October 1973.

44 Homan, ‘Austria Seeks Émigré Plan’; Homan, ‘Austrian Deal With Arabs Hit’; Smith, ‘For Jews from Soviet, Fear and Joy in Vienna.’

45 James McCartney, ‘Reveal U.S. helped pay for Jewish Camp’, Chicago Tribune, 4 October 1973; Tim O'Brien, ‘State Dept. Has Paid $44 Million to Help Jews Leave Russia’, Washington Post, 5 October 1973.

46 Rush, ‘Kreisky-Meir Meeting and Aftermath’; Rush to US Mission to the UN, ‘Possible Role of UN or other International Agencies in Transit of Soviet Jews Through Austria’, 3 October 1973, AAD; ‘U.N. refuses to run Jewish refugee site’, 4 October 1973, Chicago Tribune.

47 Some commentators have suggested that the attack was designed as a diversion by Syrian intelligence services with the intention of distracting Israeli officials from Syrian and Egyptian preparations for the October War. For examples of this theory, see Patrick Seale, Asad (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1988), 206; and Major Rodney Richardson, USMC, ‘Yom Kippur War: Grand Deception Or Intelligence Blunder’, Global Security, 1991, < globalsecurity.org>. (6/10)

48 ‘Austria Closes Jewish Camp’, New York Times, 11 December 1973; ‘Jews Again Face Vienna Protests’, New York Times, 6 October 1974; ‘Jackson-Vanik and Russia Fact Sheet’, 13 November 2001, georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov (3/19/11).

49 Max Lerner, ‘Stirrings of a World Community;’ for some examples of these type of arguments in the 1990s see Samuel Huntington, ‘The Clash of Civilizations’, Foreign Affairs (Summer 1993); and Bernard Lewis, ‘The Roots of Muslim Rage’, Atlantic Monthly (September 1990).

50 See Moyn, The Last Utopia, 3–8, 117–18.

51 There was a violent debate among the various Palestinian guerilla organizations over the prospect of a Palestinian state and whether such a state should exist in all of historic Palestine or as a smaller state alongside Israel. The former vision called for the creation of a secular democratic state in all of Palestine. While this would necessarily entail the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state, various theorists argued that the two communities, Jewish and Arab, might live side-by-side with mutual rights and protections as they had done so under the Ottoman Empire. It goes without saying that this argument gained few supporters in Israel. See Chamberlin, The Global Offensive; Alain Gresh, The PLO: The Struggle Within (London: Zed Press, 1985).