Israeli Arab denies he attempted hijacking

JERUSALEM -- An Israeli Arab accused of trying to hijack an El Al airplane denied in interviews published Tuesday that he planned to commandeer the jet and ram it into Tel Aviv skyscrapers.

Tawfiq Fukra, 23, said that during a Nov. 17 flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul, he had a dispute with a flight attendant who yelled at him. "I shouted back and the security guards pounced on me, and I fell to the ground, and I don't have any more memory of what happened," Fukra told Haaretz.

Security guards alleged he pulled a small knife.

During an interrogation with Istanbul police, Fukra confessed to the allegations, including that he was planning to hijack the airplane.

However, in the newspaper interviews, Fukra said he confessed because the Turkish interrogators threatened to castrate him. He said he wants to be extradited to stand trial in Israel.

"I didn't intend to hijack the plane. I didn't intend to blow it up, nor cause it to crash into buildings in Israel," Fukra told Haaretz in response to written questions presented to him by his attorney in Istanbul, where Fukra is jailed.

A student in an Israeli college, Fukra told Yediot Ahronot that he does not belong to any of the Palestinian factions fighting Israeli occupation but has been active in promoting Israeli Arab rights.

Fukra said his trip to Istanbul was the first time he got on a plane. He said he was nervous and edgy after a long interrogation at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport. Fukra said he got up from his seat before the landing and that the flight attendant yelled at him.

In Istanbul, Fukra said, "between seven and 10 interrogators questioned me."

"They pressured and threatened me and told me that they castrate anyone who doesn't cooperate with them. So, I told them anything they wanted to hear."

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