My Hijacking, Martha Elizabeth Hodes

In this moving and thought-provoking memoir, a historian offers a personal look at the fallibilities of memory and the lingering impact of trauma as she goes back fifty years to tell the story of being a passenger on an airliner hijacked by Palestinians in 1970. On September 6, 1970, twelve-year-old Martha Hodes and her thirteen-year-old sister were flying unaccompanied back to New York City from Israel when their plane was hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and forced to land in the Jordan desert. Too young to understand the sheer gravity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Martha coped by suppressing her fear and anxiety.

Nearly a half-century later, her memories of those six days and nights as a hostage are hazy and scattered. Was it because of the passage of so much time, or had trauma made her repress such an intense life-and-death experience? A professional historian, Martha wanted to find out.

Drawing on deep archival research, childhood memories, and conversation