Munif Mohammed Abou Rish was a Palestinian journalist, who is claimed to have planned to assassinate

Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician and union organiser who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (A ...

in the mid-1970s, at the time the federal president of the Australian Labor Party (and future

prime minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the Australian Government, federal government of Australia and is also accountable to Parliament of A ...

). According to ASIO reports released in 2007, Abou Rish entered Australia on a fake passport provided to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) by Palestinians living in Australia. Abou Rish remained in Australia for three weeks and intended to return in 1975 to carry out assassinations of Bob Hawke, the Israeli ambassador to Australia, and several prominent Jewish-Australians. In an interview, the former Palestinian ambassador for Australia and the South Pacific,

Ali Kazak Ali Kazak ( ar, علي القزق) was a senior Palestinian diplomat. He is now the managing director of Southern Link International, a business, investment consultancy and public relations company. He is the founder of the Australia-Arab Affair ...

, denied the passports were fake and indicated that the PFLP never intended to assassinate Bob Hawke.

References

1974 crimes Australian people of Palestinian descent Failed assassins Australian assassins Australian journalists 20th-century Australian criminals Racism in Australia Palestinian emigrants to Australia 1974 deaths Year of birth missing {{Crime-bio-stub