is a Japanese communist and member of the Japanese Red Army (JRA), responsible for the massacre of 26 passengers at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Israel. Biography Kozo Okamoto is the youngest child of a school principal. He was a 24-year-old botany student when he was recruited to the Japanese Red Army. He was later detained in Lebanon. During his stay in Lebanon, Okamoto converted to Islam. Lod Airport massacre On May 30, 1972, Kōzō Okamoto along with Yasuyuki Yasuda, and Tsuyoshi Okudaira, landed at Israel's Lod Airport via Air France Flight 132 from Rome. After disembarking from the plane the three members of the JRA proceeded to the baggage claim area. Upon retrieving their luggage, they took out automatic weapons packed inside the suitcases and opened fire on other passengers in the baggage claim area. The attack was a joint operation of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – External Operations (PFLP-EO), and the Japanese Red Army. The idea behind the joint effort was for the JRA to carry out attacks for the PLFP, and vice versa, in order to reduce suspicion. The plan worked, as Okamoto and his comrades attracted little attention prior to their attack. Okamoto and his comrades killed 26 people and wounded 80 more. Seventeen of the victims were Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico. Yasuyuki Yasuda was accidentally shot dead by one of the other attackers. Tsuyoshi Okudaira was killed by one of his own grenades, either due to premature detonation or a suicide. Kōzō Okamoto was wounded and captured trying to escape the terminal. Trial and release Okamoto was tried in an Israeli military court under the 1948 Emergency Regulations. His court-appointed lawyers were Max Kritzman and David Rotlevy. Chicago-born and British-trained Kritzman, who was chief lawyer, had experience defending Israelis charged under the Emergency Regulations. Of Okamoto, he complained that "this man will not cooperate." Okamoto pleaded guilty, ensuring that he did not get sentenced to death. He also protested his attorneys' requests for a psychiatric evaluation. In his final statement he told the court: "When I was a child, I was told that when people died they became stars...We three Red Army soldiers wanted to become Orion when we died." Okamoto was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Israel. During the incarceration, he requested to convert to Judaism and tried to circumcise himself with nail clippers. On 20 July 1973,