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SYDNEY - Palestinian extremists plotted to assassinate former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke because of his support for Israel, secret government papers revealed yesterday.
Australian spies believed militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were planning in 1975 to kill Hawke, who was then the
president of the Labor Party and a senior trade union leader.
The PFLP also had in their sights Israel's ambassador to Canberra, a Jewish community spokesman and a prominent Jewish journalist.
Details of the plot came to light with the release of Cabinet papers from 1976.
"It emerged that in addition to the Israeli ambassador, three prominent Australians - R.J. Hawke, president of the ALP and ACTU, and Zionist spokesman Isi Liebler and Sam Lipski - were regarded by the PFLP as suitable targets for future attack," the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation warned.
The Cabinet papers, released by the National Archives of Australia, showed that the Government was increasingly concerned in the mid-1970s that Palestinian militants were preparing to strike on Australian soil.
Australia could be regarded as a soft target compared to the US or Europe, and extremists could expect help from members of the Palestinian diaspora, ASIO warned.
"As stringent security measures limit the ability of terrorists to plan and conduct operations in Western Europe and North America, their attention may turn to Australia. The Government has made a number of decisions which could be interpreted as unfavourable to the Palestinian cause. A pro-Palestinian terrorist attack could take place in Australia."
A member of the military branch Fatah was intercepted in Melbourne in 1973 and deported after a tip-off from Israeli intelligence that he was part of a plot to attack Israeli targets in Australia.
A year later ASIO put under surveillance Abou Rish, a member of the PFLP, when he visited Sydney and Melbourne.
The intelligence agency believed he planned to return during the winter of 1975 to plan the assassination of the Israeli ambassador.
In the end he failed to return, with ASIO suggesting that his services were required elsewhere.
Another PFLP member tried to visit Australia in November 1975 but was refused a visa. None of the plots materialised and Australians remained largely untouched by terrorism until the Bali bombings of October 2002. A former Palestinian ambassador to Australia said the alleged plots had been concocted by the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, as part of the propaganda war against the Palestinians.
"ASIO were taken for a ride and accepted [the reports] because that allowed them a bigger budget and more power," Ali Kazak told Australian Associated Press.
"It has never been the intention of Palestine to bring this conflict to Australia and we made this clear to ASIO."
The papers also show that Australia was concerned about the flood of Lebanese immigrants fleeing the civil war in their homeland.
Australia relaxed its normal immigration criteria in response to the humanitarian crisis and accepted large numbers of refugees.
The then Immigration Minister, Michael Mackellar, expressed concerns that the sectarian divisions ripping apart Lebanon could be transposed to Australia.
The Government was also worried that a large proportion of them were illiterate and unskilled.