Bangkok Israeli Embassy Hostage Crisis

On 28 December 1972, four operatives from the Palestinian militant group Black September carried out a raid on the Israeli embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. Two operatives infiltrated a party being held at the embassy, while two others scaled the compound wall carrying automatic weapons. Together the four took control of the building. They allowed Thai nationals present to leave but held six Israeli embassy staff hostage: Shimon Avimor, the visiting Israeli Ambassador to Cambodia; first secretary Nitzan Hadas and his wife Ruth; administration attache Pincus Lavie; Lavie's assistant Danie Beri; and Beri's wife.

The attack took place on the day Vajiralongkorn was to be proclaimed Crown Prince of Thailand. Israeli Ambassador Rehavam Amir and his wife Avital were attending the investiture ceremony at the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall rather than at the embassy, and so were not among the hostages; this allowed Ambassador Amir to take part in the subsequent negotiations. He and Thai Prime Minister Thanom Kittikachorn were informed of the siege during a break in the ceremony.

The militants moved their hostages to the second floor of the three-storey embassy building and issued demands, calling for the release of 36 prisoners held in Israeli jails, including Kozo Okamoto and survivors of the Sabena Flight 571 incident. They threatened to destroy the embassy if these demands were not met by 08:00 on 29 December.

Negotiations were led by two Thai government figures, Dawee Chullasapya and Chatichai Choonhavan (then deputy foreign minister, later Thai prime minister in 1988), along with the Egyptian ambassador to Thailand, Mustapha el Assawy. Rather than meeting the militants' demands for prisoner releases, the negotiators and other Thai officials offered themselves as guarantors of the militants' safe passage to Cairo in exchange for the hostages' release.

After 19 hours of negotiation, an agreement was reached — later referred to as the "Bangkok solution" — under which the militants released all six hostages unharmed and were flown to Cairo. The Thai government reportedly wished to avoid having the day's celebration of the crown prince's investiture overshadowed by a dispute it viewed as unrelated to Thailand, and so guaranteed the militants' safe travel. Black September's leadership was said to be unhappy with how its operatives had resolved the standoff. Then-Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir praised the Thai government's handling of the crisis for achieving a bloodless resolution.

No one was reported injured in the incident.