ABOUT TERROR IN BLACK SEPTEMBER

On September 6, 1970, 17-year-old David Raab was hijacked to Jordan by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as part of a quadruple hijacking attempt. For three weeks, he was held hostage, first aboard the plane in the desert, then in a Palestinian refugee camp, and finally with 31 other Americans in a small apartment in Amman. About 10 days into David's captivity, war erupted as King Hussein attempted to reestablish control over his country. Regional conflict and super-power confrontation were real prospects. The month became known as Black September because the war was brutal, with at least 2,000 killed in 10 days, and it led to the expulsion of the PLO from Jordan. It also led to a major realignment of the geopolitical landscape in the Middle East.

On September 6, 2007, the 37th anniversary of the hijackings, Palgrave Macmillan will publish David Raab’s Terror in Black September on the events of that month. Unique and captivating, the book is part memoir, part history. It movingly portrays an inside view of the hijackings and the hostage drama and includes excerpts of Raab’s own diary. Exhaustively researched, the book also dramatically documents the historical story: the friction between the Palestinian guerrilla movement and King Hussein; the civil war that erupted as a result of the hijackings; and the fractious behind-the-scenes multinational negotiations for the release of the hostages. Several major historical findings are published for the first time, including King Hussein’s explicit request for Israel’s military intervention against invading Syrian forces; the clear Soviet role in encouraging Syria to invade Jordan; Britain’s willingness to see King Hussein fall; and Britain’s promise to Egypt behind the backs of the United States, Israel, West Germany, and Switzerland negotiating for the release of the hostages.