Officials in Johannesburg are considering renaming Sandton Drive in the city’s wealthy financial district to honor a member of a terrorist organization linked to two airline hijackings in the 1960s.
Municipal leaders have proposed the name change to honor Leila Khaled, an associate of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who was involved in the 1969 seizure of TWA Flight 840 while it was traveling from Rome to Tel Aviv.
Khaled also took part in a September 1970 incident when she and an accomplice unsuccessfully attempted to take over El Al Flight 219, threatening to destroy the aircraft with hand grenades if they were not given access to the cockpit during its transit to New York City.
The South African Zionist Federation publicly criticized the initiative, suggesting that one of the motives for the legislation is to embarrass the United States as the country’s consulate is located along the thoroughfare.
