The Facebook page of the Fatah Movement headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas dedicated a special page to the life of Japanese terrorist Kozo Okamoto. His cell carried out the shooting attack at Lod Airport on May 30, 1972, where 26 people were killed and 79 injured.
Okamoto was a member of the Japanese Red Army terrorist organization, which participated in military training in Lebanon on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in September 1971. The Japanese terrorist was the only member of the cell who survived the attack. He was sentenced to three life sentences but released 13 years later as part of the "Jibril Deal" prisoner exchange between Israel and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, headed by Ahmed Jibril in 1986, in which over 1,000 terrorists were released in exchange for three captive soldiers.
The MEMRI Institute, which reported on the Fatah page dedicated to Okamoto, notes that this is not the first post about Okamoto published on Fatah's official Facebook page. On May 18, 2016, a post was published entitled Who is Comrade Kozo Okamoto the International Revolutionary? that read: "On May 30, 1972, a squad of three Japanese commandos attacked Lod Airport. The squad threw five hand grenades: Three of them on planes parked on the tarmac, one at the customs department at the airport, and one on the cars in the airport. As a result, 26 Israelis were killed and more than 80 injured.
"After the grenades were thrown, the squad began to retreat from the airport and was confronted it on its way by an Israeli patrol near Ramle Prison. The confrontation resulted in the injury of five patrol members. Two of the three Japanese commandos gave their lives: They were Ttsoyoshi Okudira (whose underground name is Bassem) and Yasuyuki Yasuda (whose underground name is Salah). The third was arrested and he is Kozo Okamoto (whose underground name is Ahmed). This operation was planned by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
"These Japanese commandos belonged to the Japanese Red Army Organization, a revolutionary organization that split from the Japanese Communist Party and took upon itself the task of supporting all oppressed peoples on earth and instigating a global revolution against the persecution and oppression carried out by the colonialist and imperialist forces in this world. Palestine's just predicament, and the violence and expulsion suffered by our people from the Zionist movement, supported by the great powers, received the interest and attention of this revolutionary organization, and it forged close relations with the forces of the Palestinian revolution in Lebanon at the time."
Lebanese lawyer of the Japanese Red Army group Beshara Abi Saad holds the first asylum identity card for Japanese Red Army member Kozo Okamoto after he received it from the Head of Security General Jamil al-Sayed during a press conference held in Security General offices in Beirut March 21. Lebanon granted Kozo Okamoto political asylum because he had participated in operations against Israel:
