‘Don’t honour Khaled,’ terror survivor urges Joburg

An elderly survivor of the Lod Airport Massacre in 1972 has urged the City of Johannesburg to abandon plans to rename Sandton Drive after Leila Khaled, the Palestinian activist linked to a terror group which he says changed his life.

Tony Larroy, 80, from Arecibo in Puerto Rico, wrote a heartfelt letter to Joburg City Manager Floyd Brink, pleading with the city not to honour Khaled, a high-ranking member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

“Leila Khaled helped murder my fellow pilgrims. Please don’t honour her,” he wrote in a deeply personal letter sharing his experience more than 50 years ago. The SA Jewish Report has a copy of his letter.

The massacre at Lod Airport – now known as Ben Gurion Airport – on 30 May 1972, claimed the lives of 26 people, including 17 Puerto Ricans who were part of a Christian pilgrimage, as well as eight Israelis, and one Canadian. Larroy’s girlfriend, Carmen Crespo, was among those killed in the brutal attack orchestrated by Khaled’s group. “The loss was devastating for our families and our entire community,” he wrote.

Larroy was alerted to Johannesburg’s renaming plans by Diego Mendelbaum, the executive director of the Jewish Community Centre in Puerto Rico. Mendelbaum initially reached out to Larroy for his reaction to the renaming of the main road outside the United States embassy in Sandton. Larroy hadn’t heard about it, Mendelbaum told the SA Jewish Report.

Their connection stems from various memorial activities they have both participated in, particularly around honouring survivors of the Lod Massacre.

There’s a memorial to the victims of the Lod Massacre in San Juan, the Puerto Rican capital. It was erected by the Puerto Rican senate and is right next to a prominent Holocaust memorial close to the country’s legislature. Mendelbaum and Larroy have participated in several events at these memorials.

Mendelbaum said that when he told Larroy about Sandton Drive, he chose to write about his and his girlfriend’s story in a bid to highlight the truth about Khaled’s involvement.

Mendelbaum, a lawyer, assisted Spanish-speaking Larroy with the translation of his letter before sending it to the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF).

Larroy writes in his letter that he has never visited South Africa, but believes that his story, which he describes as “personal and painful to all Puerto Ricans”, matters.

“I hope sharing this with you will help guide your decision,” he wrote.

“We had travelled so far to walk where Jesus once walked, to see the holy sites we had only read about in the Bible. It was our first time visiting the holy land.”

It was a typical airport scene, he recalled, with some passengers in the arrivals hall, some at baggage claims, travellers coming and going.

“Then, out of nowhere, gunfire erupted. Three men with machine guns were shooting at everyone in sight. They were also throwing grenades.”

He was shot in the leg. “It was terrifying,” he said.

His girlfriend was standing next to him. “She was shot several times, including once in the head. She died instantly. She was only 20. All around me, people were lying on the ground, injured or dead. Blood was everywhere – on the floors, on the luggage. It was a nightmare that I’ve carried with me every day since.”

Leila Khaled rose to prominence in 1970 for her role in an attempted hijacking of an El Al flight during a global wave of airline hijackings. Although the hijacking failed and Khaled was arrested in the United Kingdom, her involvement cemented her image as a divisive, polarising figure. Critics point to her association with the PFLP’s violent acts, while her supporters regard her as a symbol of Palestinian resistance.

In his letter, Larroy stressed Khaled’s direct connection to the Lod Massacre. He highlighted her role in creating propaganda for the PFLP, which glorified the attack and recruited its perpetrators. Khaled has also celebrated the attackers’ actions in subsequent years, further deepening the wounds of those affected.

The PFLP later justified the attack by claiming that the pilgrims were “siding with the enemy”.

For Larroy, the memory of that day remains vivid. “We weren’t soldiers. We weren’t there to take sides in any conflict. We were on a pilgrimage to the holy land for religious reasons, to walk in peace, not to harm anyone. We didn’t deserve to be murdered.”

Critics of the Sandton Drive renaming such as the SAZF, civil society groups, residents, and businesses argue that honouring Khaled glorifies a figure tied to terrorism and undermines South Africa’s commitment to human rights and reconciliation.

“South Africa is known around the world as a country that stands for freedom, democracy, and human rights,” Larroy wrote. “It would be a tragedy if such a legacy were tarnished by having the name of Leila Khaled darken its streets.”

Naming a road after someone with “the blood of innocent people on their hands doesn’t help build peace, unity, or justice for any country”, he wrote, saying that honouring Khaled this way was “painful beyond words”.

“No country in the world has ever built a monument to her. It’s hard to believe this is even being considered in Johannesburg.” He wrote.

On Wednesday, 27 November, a protest against the Sandton Drive renaming took place in Braamfontein outside the City of Johannesburg Council Chamber. It was attended by members of civil society and representatives of several political parties. Those opposed to it say that Khaled’s legacy “starkly contrasts with South Africa’s values of reconciliation and peace-building”, and that the renaming had the potential to undermine the country’s commitment to unity, reconciliation, and human dignity.

The office of the city manager hadn’t responded to questions at the time of going to press.

A two-day council meeting is set down for this week in which this issue is being raised. The Patriotic Alliance’s Kenny Kunene has a motion to rescind the 2018 approval of the name change. However, there were 5 500 objections to the renaming and around 70 000 signatures in favour of the name change. The Democratic Alliance claims the latter are invalid and have called for an independent audit.