Hawzah News Agency- In a statement, Hezbollah described Okamoto, also known as "Ahmed the Japanese," as "an international activist and one of the heroes of the heroic operation at Lydd Airport," saying he passed on after dedicating his life to the Palestinian cause.
"We mourn the international activist Kozo Okamoto (Ahmed the Japanese), one of the heroes of the heroic operation at Lydd Airport, who passed away yesterday, Thursday, in the Southern Suburbs of Beirut, that revolutionary who transcended the boundaries of identity, affiliation, and geography in his struggle for the foremost humanitarian cause, the Palestinian cause, and the wounded and prisoner who made great sacrifices in support of the Palestinian people," Hezbollah said.
The group said Okamoto "embodied the model of a revolutionary human being who believed in humanitarian values and the values of freedom and justice in confronting tyranny, oppression, and racism."
It added that his activism demonstrated that the Palestinian cause would remain "the compass and the cause of free people around the world," while stressing the importance of standing with the oppressed in confronting "occupation and injustice."
Hezbollah extended its condolences to Okamoto's family, friends, and supporters, as well as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
"We ask God to envelop him in His vast mercy, and may his legacy of struggle remain a model from which free people around the world draw the meanings of freedom and justice and resistance to the forces of hegemony," the statement said.
In 1972, Okamoto and two other members of the Japanese Red Army carried out an armed operation at Lydd Airport, which resulted in the deaths of 26 people.
The three men had coordinated the operation with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. They took firearms and grenades from their luggage at the airport and opened fire.
The men had reportedly planned to end their lives after completing the operation. Two of the three were martyred, while Okamoto was wounded and detained.
Okamoto spent most of his detention in solitary confinement before being released in May 1985 as part of a major prisoner exchange between Palestinian groups and "Israel."
He later spent several years in camps operated by the Japanese Red Army and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley.
In 2000, Lebanon granted Okamoto political asylum.
Okamoto passed away on Thursday, July 23, in the apartment where he lived the remainder of his life, in Beirut's Southern Suburbs.
Source: Al Mayadeen
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