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Laila back to

Palestinian

homeland

AMMAN: Leila Khaled, who sprang to fame when she hijacked an American TWA airliner in 1969, returned to her Palestinian homeland on Sunday, unrepentant and still opposed to the peace process between Israel and the PLO.

"You cannot imagine my state, I'm very emotional now. It's the first time I am going home -- the homeland is very dear, very dear," Khaled told Reuters in Jordan before heading to the Allenby Bridge to cross the Jordan River into Palestinian areas.

Khaled was returning for a meeting of the Palestine National Council (PNC) called by PLO chairman Yasser Arafat to remove clauses from the organisation's charter calling for the destruction of Israel.

Israel allowed the former hijacker to return to attend the meeting -- which it has demanded -- but she said she would oppose any plans to change the charter.

Khaled, 52, whose flashing dark eyes and Kalashnikov assault rifle won her fame when she hijacked an American TWA jet in 1969, said she was never a terrorist "but a struggler for the freedom of my people."

Khaled was captured in London in 1970 while trying to hijack an Israeli El Al plane but was exchanged for hostages taken in other hijackings. She spent most of the years since then in Beirut and Damascus but has been in Amman since 1993.

Khaled, still a member of the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) -- a PLO faction opposed to the current peace process -- was born in Haifa four years before the 1948 war that led to Israel's creation and drove her family to Lebanon.

Khaled was returning under Israel's offer to let all members of the PNC, the Palestinian parliament-in-exile, meet to amend the 32-year-old constitution.

Israel said in February it would let Khaled and 153 others, including some of the staunchest anti-Israeli guerrillas, return for the meeting. They may settle in the West Bank or Gaza with their families if they choose.

Khaled said she rejected Israeli conditions for her return to Palestinian self-rule areas, said to include signing a paper denouncing terrorism and backing the Middle East peace process,

Arafat promised Israel last September to change the PLO charter two months after convening the Palestinian legislative council, elected in a poll in January. Israel has threatened to halt talks with the PLO if Arafat fails to keep his promise.

A PLO official said on Saturday the PNC would meet on April 22 in Gaza to discuss removing clauses from its 1964 charter calling for Israel's destruction.-Reuter