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Summary of

My Hijacking

Summary of

Martha Hodes’s book

Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering

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Summary of My Hijacking by Martha Hodes: A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering

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This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Martha Hodes’s “My Hijacking: A Personal History of Forgetting and Remembering” designed to enrich your reading experience.

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What Happened?

In 1970, the author and their sister Catherine were on a flight from Tel Aviv to New York. Their mother lived in Israel and their father lived in America. They were hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and their sister and I were held inside the plane for six nights and six days. After their return home, there was no debriefing by authorities, and no one sent us to a school guidance counselor or therapist. The author continued flying, shrugging off their unease.

Then, on September 11, 2001, the author was starting his eighth year as a professor at New York University. The students in his class were shocked by the explosions from the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The author began to write books and articles about other people's lives, often in one way or another about grief and loss. Nearly forty-five years after their return from the desert, the author broached the subject with her sister, who had struggled as grown-ups to maintain the intimacy that helped them survive back then.

The author's memories of the hijacking were murky and jumbled, with fragmented images coming to mind. They saw hazy pictures and faint voices, such as someone apologizing to them, a Palestinian doctor walking down the aisle, and the copilot carrying dynamite onto the plane.

On the first day in the desert, the author could only recall a single disconnected picture. On the second night, a commando at the front of the plane looked at the passport my sister and I shared, asking why we were in Israel. The man asking if we were Jewish, Catherine saying yes, and the commandos boarding the hostages into vans, then making us get off the vans. Standing huddled together in the darkness and cold, the commandos surrounding us in a circle, holding guns, wondered if they would shoot us.

Straining to recall our days and nights on the plane brought random, floating images of two friendly young grown-ups sitting behind us and the old rabbi sitting in front of us. The author recounts their experiences during the hijacking of a plane in the desert, describing the joys and anxiety they experienced as a young woman and a Palestinian man. They also recall the fear and confusion they felt when they were taken off the plane, leaving only women and children as hostages.

Upon returning home, the author reflects on their own memories and the events that occurred during the hijacking. They discuss their father's stories, stepmother's nuanced versions, and mother's misty memories. They also consult with childhood friends, teachers, and high school friends to gather information about the hijacking.

The author's journey as a historian has allowed her to explore her own memories and connect the events to the lives of her family. She has visited archives, read news coverage, and watched television broadcasts, as well as read the manifestos of her captors and their narratives. She has also met and conversed with fellow hostages and visited the places where everything happened.

The author acknowledges that a seamless story of the hijacking would be impossible due to the vast differences in experiences and perspectives among different people. The author's journey serves as a reminder of the importance of understanding and connecting the experiences of those involved in such events. The author, Martha, is a hostage who struggles to tell her own story of the 1970 hijacking. She reads David Raab's book Terror in Black September, which focuses on the international negotiations. She suspects that her limited memories may be due to the long-term nature of the events, her childhood, or the potential for human memory to erase trauma. She also questions what memories could tell her about the hijacking, particularly the sense of fear that seemed appropriate to the circumstances.

The author is interested in understanding how the hijacking may have affected her life, and she contacts David Raab to ask about how the hijacking may have affected her. The author finds a telegram mentioning the hijacking and the names of Catherine and the author, which sparked the idea of recovering the feelings that accompanied the hijacking. Two documents, the diary and the tape, are crucial to her quest. The diary contains over a thousand words written during their desert sojourn, while the tape contains a conversation between the author and Catherine. The diary and tape help answer the questions she wants to solve about why she remembers so little and what memories could tell her.

Part One

No Memory of Knowing

1

In this text, the author describes their journey from Tel Aviv to New York City on a plane. They are accompanied by their mother, who helps them close their suitcases and is wearing a long nightgown. The author's mother is crying as she has to say goodbye to them for a long time. The author recalls reading The Little Prince, a book about a young boy who bids farewell to a temperamental flower. The author's sister, Catherine, takes the middle seat in the nonsmoking section near the front of tourist class.

The author's mother buys her sister a pair of bell-bottoms from Bloomingdale's during a visit to New York. The author recalls the night before the flight, which was jinxed due to a calamity at Frankfurt airport. The author and Catherine board the plane and record the flight number, time, and stops before landing in New York.

At 11:02 a.m., the plane takes off from Frankfurt on schedule. As they soar over Belgium, a commotion occurs, with a woman and a man shouting. The passengers believe the couple is fighting, but Catherine sees the man's gun and finger inserted through a hand grenade. The old lady warns Catherine to take off the Jewish star hanging on a slim gold chain around her neck.

The author and Catherine are alarmed by the commotion and the hijacking. The hijacker directs one of the stewardesses to the flight deck, demanding to be let in. The flight engineer opens the door to find a rattled stewardess crying out, claiming it's a hijacking. The hijacking is nearly synonymous with Cuba, referring to American protestors or Cuban exiles seizing airplanes as stunts or pranks. The author wonders if they will take a Caribbean detour, where inconvenienced flyers compensated with lavish dinners and Cuban cigars in fancy hotels.

In this text, the author describes a TWA flight that is hijacked by a male hijacker. The passengers are worried about their destination and the potential consequences of their actions. They are unsure of where they might be heading and are unsure of the safety of their fellow passengers. The hijacker orders everyone out of first class, obliging crew members to pull out armrests between tourist-class seats. The hijacker instructs the crew to keep calm and put their hands behind their heads, but she does not want the passengers to draw weapons.

The author and Catherine are excited about starting seventh grade at Hunter High, an all-girl public school with an admissions test, and Catherine has auditioned for the acting program at the High School of Performing Arts. As the plane turns back in the other direction, the cabin becomes quiet, and the author pleads with God to save their lives and Catherine's.

The author and Catherine are excited about the new school year and their future. They are excited about starting seventh grade at Hunter High and Catherine's acting program at the High School of Performing Arts. The author is also excited about starting a new school year and is eager to watch a Hollywood remake of the 1950s musical Paint Your Wagon.

A stewardess shepherds Catherine and the author into an empty first-class row, shielding her younger sister from any activity in and around the cockpit. The author sees the copilot emerge from the cockpit with his hands up and the barrel of a gun against his neck, a scene that will remain in their minds for the rest of their lives.

The captain faces the challenge of landing the aircraft in unknown territory in rapidly falling darkness. The pilot is able to convince the male hijacker to take a seat and fasten the seat belt, and the landing is smooth and safe. The author and Catherine are relieved to be on solid ground, but the absence of real runway lights and airport terminal buildings is unsettling.

Amidst the fear, a celebration takes place outside the plane, with a crowd clapping, dancing, and firing weapons into the air. The man and woman who took over the flight are welcomed by their comrades, melting into the outdoor throng. In this text, the author recounts their experience on a hijacked plane, where they are accompanied by their captors and a group of passengers. The captors, including a woman named Hallah Joseph and a man named Bassam Abu-Sharif, apologize for the inconvenience caused and discuss their motives of liberating their country from Israeli occupation. The pilots distribute landing cards, and the author and Catherine share a booklet with their captors. The captors declare their cause through slogan cards, which include messages from Mao Zedong, Vladimir Lenin, and Mao Zedong.

As the plane lands, a loud thunder pierces the nighttime sky, and the captain puts his engines in reverse to avoid crashing into the passengers. The stewardesses serve dinner and distribute milk and water, with a Palestinian doctor from the Red Crescent assisting. The cabin crew, who serve as both hostages and airline staff, make everyone comfortable. The copilot, a kind and earnest man, assures the passengers that they will not be harmed, and the author is reminded of the promise of no bodily harm.

The author's memory of the situation is a dynamite, with the commandos carrying thick yellow cables and the expressionless faces of the men. The author vows to never let the two of them be separated, as she fills out their landing cards and helps her sister settle in for the night.

2

On Labor Day, the author and his friends are on a plane in the Jordan desert, surrounded by stranded jetliners and a bustling scene. A local representative from the International Red Cross informs them that they are making contacts for their release. They learn of two more Sunday hijackings, including an El Al takeover and a Pan American jet exploding at the Cairo airport.

On the first day, a select group of passengers from both desert planes are allowed to leave, loaded into vans waiting on the desert floor. The author and Catherine feel apprehensive about being Jewish, but obeys the old lady in their row who told her to take off her Jewish-star necklace. The commandos order some of the hostages off the plane, including Catherine and me, and board us onto vans.

As the night turns into another, the author and Catherine learn that some male passengers are missing, and the rest of the group spreads out in tourist class. They imitate her heart-clutching cry, "My pills! My pills!" Their mockery helps interrupt the sense of dread all around them.

One day, a group of commandos appear ecstatic, embracing and shaking hands. They are then ordered to assist with the landing of another aircraft searching for the desert runway. The Swissair and British BOAC planes approach the new prey, and over a hundred commandos toss their hats and guns, jumping up and down, dancing.

Some passengers on the plane want to visit the new hostages, but their captors refuse, and the grown-ups' faces display consternation. The author's determination to remain calm is challenged by the questions of what will happen to Catherine and her father if they never come home. The text describes the harsh conditions on a desert plane during the day, with male crew members wearing sleeveless shifts and stewardesses wearing dark-colored uniforms. The crew provides makeshift blankets and provides makeshift blankets to divide first class from tourist class. The heat and desert winds cause dust to enter the eyes, ears, noses, and mouths, making it difficult to breathe. The plane remains sealed and suffocating until the storm passes.

Meals are plentiful, with pita being the staple provided by the captors. However, as the days pass, most of the fillings run out, and the bread becomes hard as a rock. As the days go on, meals become scarcer and sparser. The commandos provide water from two trucks, and the cabin is filled with cigarette smoke. The commandos do not want the hostages to get sick but do want them to understand their lives as refugees by experiencing their own sufferings.

The hostages are like an ideal community, with many adult and children friends. They have many adult and children friends, including Tikva, Susie, and Foozie. They also have adult friends Mark and Mimi, who are traveling home from Israel.

The hostages have many adult and children friends, and they witness a lot of hubbub around the old man seated in the row ahead of them. They have no formal training in pleading with God, and they feel strained when formulating prayers in their minds or in the pages of their diary. Most of the captors are nice to Catherine and them, and they especially like Hallah Joseph, the head commando on the plane. Some of the American hostages are angry at the Popular Front and President Richard Nixon for prolonging their captivity.

Catherine and the author dislike one commando, Palestina, who keeps her weapon visible and makes accusations like "You're an Israeli soldier!" Catherine and Mark are two hostages on a plane in the desert, surrounded by a group of children. They are accompanied by a young girl named Gerry, who is a descendant of the chief rabbi of Sudan. The commandos order them to give up all products made in Israel, which Catherine finds beautiful. The girl is hesitant to leave her diary, but a commando finds her photograph of Gerry and tells her about dancing with him at a party.

The plane feels crowded, with a thousand children under the age of fourteen, including seven babies and restless toddlers and youngsters. The girl and Mark are too old to care for the little ones and are not accompanied by their real friends. They study their friends in the in-flight catalog and find a host of silent friends in the dolls for sale.

The desert landscape offers a dramatic change from the aircraft's airless interior, with the Jordanian army visible on the horizon. The girl and Mark walk with Foozie, who explains that the water is a mirage. The girl learns about mirages in elementary school and is pointing out the phenomenon to the other children.

One day, someone starts a round of John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane," which the folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary made into a hit single that year.

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 05.08.2023
ISBN: 978-3-7554-4870-9

Widmung:
Martha Hodes, a historian, recounts her experience as a passenger on an airliner hijacked in 1970. Despite being young, she suppressed fear and anxiety. Through archival research, childhood memories, and conversations, Martha aims to recreate the six days and nights as a hostage, shedding light on her fractured family and childhood sorrows.

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