The Strange Story of Mustafa al-Hamzi

Libya is a country where the people live in constant fear. A careless word can land one in prison because there are spies everywhere, and Muammar al-Qadafi's regime allows no dissent, no other ideology but Qadafi's. What's more, because most of Libya's people live near two population centres, Benghazi and Tripoli, it is easy for the secret police to spy on the people. People must go to market every day to buy the necessities, so the souks are full of informants. However, the stalls are often nearly empty of goods because of a tight system of rationing. This is because Libya, like totatalitarian governments everywhere, is on a constant war footing, afraid of enemies both domestic and foreign.

Mustafa al-Hamzi lived in the city of Tripoli, in one of the poorer neighbourhoods of the city. The year was 1974, and he was twenty-three years old at the time. People considered him odd; even his family considered him odd. He had trouble remembering names and faces, it seemed, so he would invariably reply, "I don't remember you, but I love you." This remark was inoffensive, if strange, but his family concluded that he would never attract a suitable mate and gave up trying to find a bride for him. At the age of twenty-three, he was still a virgin.

A few times, he got into trouble with authorities for the things he said. For instance, he once remarked that he didn't like the colour green. Since Libya's flag was nothing but green, in honour of Qadafi's "Green Revolution," he was arrested. Fortunately, his brother, Abd al-Hamzi, was able to explain away his remark to the police. "He wasn't talking about the flag," Abd said. "He was merely stating a personal preference."

The police decided to release Mustafa, but the constable warned sternly, "He had better watch what he says. Or maybe you had better keep an eye on him. He might unknowing give aid and comfort to our enemies."

After that incident, the family decided to get him out of the country. Fortunately, Mustafa had an uncle who lived in Italy. This uncle promised that he could find a job for Mustafa. It would only be menial labour, the uncle cautioned, but Mustafa's family didn't care. Since everybody considered Mustafa an imbecile, nobody ever expected him to amount to much anyway.

Mustafa's family bought him an airplane ticket and put him on an Air Libya DC-10 from Tripoli to Rome. Then, while the plane was en route to Rome, Mustafa pulled out a pistol, put it to the flight attendant's head, and demanded to see the pilot. The flight attendant was in no mood to argue; she took him to the pilot and co-pilot. Because airport security was very lax in those days, even in Libya, Mustafa was easily able to smuggle a weapon on board the aeroplane.

Then Mustafa asked the astonished pilot, "Does this plane have enough fuel to make it to Tel Aviv?"

"Of course," the pilot replied. "We always carry more than enough fuel, in case of emergencies."

"Then radio the air traffic controllers in Tel Aviv and tell them that you have to make an emergency landing," Mustafa ordered.

The pilot made the call. Then Mustafa seized the radio speaker from the pilot and asked the person on the other end in Arabic, "Is this Tel Aviv?"

"Yes," replied a woman's voice, also in Arabic.

"How is it that you are able to speak Arabic?" Mustafa asked suspiciously. "Israel is not an Arab country, except for the Palestinians living there. How do I know that this isn't Egypt?"

"We have to be able to speak Arabic because we sometimes get flights from Arab countries that have to make emergency landings," the woman replied.

"Can you say something in Hebrew?" Mustafa asked.

"Shalom aleichem," the woman replied.

Mustafa ordered her to recite something from the Hebrew bible. When she started to recite the 22nd Psalm in Hebrew, he stopped her when he was satisfied that she was Israeli.

"What do you want?" the woman asked.

"This is a hijacking," Mustafa replied calmly. "Do as I say and no one will get hurt."

The woman told him stay on line and transferred him to an Israeli Defence Force officer.

The officer identified himself as Colonel Avner Wolf Leumi and asked him to name his conditions. Mustafa named them. Then an astonished Captain Leumi asked, "Who are you?"

"You will know when the pilot lands this plane," Mustafa replied. Then he broke off communication.

About twenty minutes later, as the airliner approached Israeli air space, the other passengers were able to look out their windows and see two Israeli F-1 Phantom jet fighters on each side of the plane. Once the squadron leader verified that it was merely a Libyan airliner approaching Israeli air space, the F-1 Phantoms escorted the DC-10 to David Ben-Gurion International Airport.

When the plane land in Tel Aviv, Mustafa surrendered to the Israeli authorities without a struggle. Of course, Colonel Leumi was dying to confront a Libyan hijacker in Israel. "Why would you hijack a plane to Israel, of all places?" Leumi asked, astonished.

"I want to show the world that not all Arabs want to destroy Israel," Mustafa replied.

"He's nuts!" another Israeli officer muttered.

Nearly everybody in Israel thought that Mustafa al-Hamzi was mentally ill once this story hit the newspapers.