Defendant ‘Happy’ About Israeli Slayings, Court Told

A Briton accused along with two Arabs of murdering three Israelis on a yacht said he is “totally happy” that he did something for the Palestinian struggle, a police statement read in court today said.

Ian Michael Davison, a 27-year-old carpenter from South Shields, England, and the two Arabs are accused of killing two Israeli men and an Israeli woman aboard a small yacht in the Larnaca marina in south Cyprus on Sept. 25.

Israel retaliated for the triple murder by bombing the Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, killing more than 70 people.

Police said that in a statement after his arrest Davison admitted killing one of the Israeli men held hostage aboard the yacht.

“We agreed, the three of us, from the very beginning and before we captured the yacht, to continue negotiating till 2 p.m., and if our demands were not met to kill the hostages at 2 o’clock and surrender ourselves to the Cypriot authorities,” the statement said.

“We agreed to kill them because they were our enemies and worked with the Israeli intelligence against the Palestinian people,” the statement said. “I am totally happy and satisfied with myself that I have done something specific for the Palestinian case.”

The three Israelis on the yacht were Reuven and Esther Palzur, ages 53 and 50, and Abraham Avnery, 55. Israel has denied that the three victims were intelligence agents, as the defendants contend.

Davison’s statement said the gunmen “killed one (hostage) each to face the same charges.”

Davison also said he traveled to Syria in 1983 specifically to join the Palestinian struggle.