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JewishHistoryעברית

Lod Airport massacre

Date
30 May 1972Hebrew date: 17th of Sivan, 5732
Location
Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion Airport)Israel
Then part of
State of Israel
Perpetrators
  • Japanese Red Army (Terror organization)
  • Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (Terror organization)
Killed (estimate)
26[1]People killed, not counting the two attackers who died. BBC and the Jewish Virtual Library both give 26 dead. JVL lists 17 Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico, 1 Canadian and 8 Israelis, and 80 injured. BBC On This Day named 11 Puerto Rican pilgrims among the dead and said dozens were injured; a later BBC Witness page said more than 70 injured. Both BBC pages date the gunmen's arrival as 29 May; JVL dates the attack 30 May.
Country

0.001% of the Jewish population of State of Israel (c. 1970)[23]

Worldwide

0.0002% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1970)[4]

Category
Terror attack, Massacre
Confidence
DisputedBBC On This Day and BBC Witness date the attackers' arrival as 29 May 1972; the Jewish Virtual Library dates the massacre 30 May 1972, the date later designated in Puerto Rico as Lod Massacre Remembrance Day. The death total of 26 is agreed. BBC named 11 Puerto Rican pilgrims among the dead; JVL lists 17.

Summary

Three members of the Japanese Red Army, recruited by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, opened fire and threw grenades in the baggage hall at Lod Airport after arriving on an Air France flight. They killed 26 people. One attacker killed himself with a grenade, a second was shot, and Kozo Okamoto was arrested. The PFLP said the raid was revenge for the killing of two hijackers at the airport on 8 May. Among the dead was Aharon Katzir of the Weizmann Institute, named by BBC.

Sources

  1. 1972: Japanese kill 26 at Tel Aviv airport. BBC News (On This Day) (1972)
  2. 'I survived the Israeli airport massacre'. BBC News (2014)
  3. The Lod Massacre. Jewish Virtual Library

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 12,735,000[4]c. 1970
  • State of Israel: 2,581,000 – 2,582,000[23]c. 1970DellaPergola's revised core estimate for Israel in 1970 is 2,581,000 (AJYB 2024 country comparison table). CBS yearbook tables commonly round end-1970 Jews to 2,582,000.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
  6. Jews in the USSR (1926–1959). Demographic Changes. JewishGen Belarus SIG (table compiled from the 1939 All-Union census)
  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
  8. José Hinojosa Montalvo, La sociedad y la economía de los judíos en Castilla y la Corona de Aragón durante la Baja Edad Media. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, Historia Medieval (1993)
  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
  13. Joseph Jacobs, Statistics. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
  21. Sergio DellaPergola, Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications. American Jewish Year Book 2003, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2003)
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  23. US Jewish Population Pocket Demographics 2.0. Berman Jewish DataBank / Jewish Federations of North America (2018)
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  31. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Appendix A: Sources and Methodology for Section 2 (Jewish and total population in Germany-Austria and Poland-Lithuania). Authors' appendix PDF (citing Weinryb, Stampfer, Kupovetsky, Guggenheim, Toch, Battenberg, Israel) (2018)
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  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  52. German Jews during the Holocaust, 1939–1945. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  56. Jewish Populations in the Arab World. Jewish Virtual Library (citing Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2021 / AJYB 2023)
  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  58. Archives juives n°45/2 — Les Juifs d'Algérie. Archives Juives / Les Belles Lettres (2012)
  59. EHRI Country Report — Tunisia. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
  60. Leon Shapiro, World Jewish Population. American Jewish Year Book 1981 (estimates for 1979), via Berman Jewish DataBank (1981)
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
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