In his exchange of letters with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on
September 9, 1993, Chairman Yasser Arafat wrote, "the PLO renounces
the use of terrorism and other acts of violence and will assume
responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to
assure their compliance, prevent violations and discipline
violators."
The Interim Agreement (Oslo 2) of September 28, 1995 (Article XXII)
states that Israel and the PA "shall seek to foster mutual
understanding and tolerance and shall accordingly abstain from
incitement, including hostile propaganda, against each other and,
without derogating from the principle of freedom of expression,
shall take legal measures to prevent such incitement by any
organizations, groups or individuals within their jurisdiction."
In the Note for the Record which accompanied the Hebron Protocol of
January 15, 1997, the Palestinians reaffirmed their commitment
regarding, "Preventing incitement and hostile propaganda, as
specified in Article XXII of the Interim Agreement."
PA Chairman Yasser Arafat in a speech to the Palestinian legislative council: "They are waging open war against the Palestinian people We must confront them, we must confront them, we must confront them. We must confront them in every sense of the word."Col. Jibril Rajoub, head of the PA Preventive Security Service, in a television interview: "If a solution is not found to the situation and the political process is not returned to its course, there will be severe clashes between us and the Israelis . All options are open before us."
(Palestinian Television, August 9, 1997)Arafat in a speech to his Fatah movement in Gaza: "It is important that we organize our homes and our movement so that we can more and more and more endure the coming battle, which we shall initiate. We must say these things because great battles lie before us, and it will now be more difficult than in the past let us each commit one to another and let us commit ourselves before Allah and the Palestinian people that we shall lead the coming battle as we have led previous battles. An oath is an oath and a promise is a promise. The whole world stands by us, while they are alone. They are afraid, but we are not. We cling to the oath and the promise. The Palestinian people is faithful to its oath, the one which we swore upon the first day when the initial shot was fired and the first of our martyrs fell. I must say these things so that you will know where, how and in what direction our movement is heading. We are marching together with the blessing of Allah, my brothers, we are marching together to Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem."
(Palestinian Television, August 5, 1997; Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 6, 1997)Suleiman Roumi, member of the Palestinian legislative council: "The words 'State of Israel' should be replaced with 'Zionist entity' in the Palestinian lexicon."
(Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 10, 1997)Kamel Hamid, head of Fatah in Bethlehem, at a rally: "all means are legitimate to uproot the despicable occupation."
(Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 10, 1997)Nabil Amru, member of the Palestinian legislative council: "Mr. Ross is honoring us with a working visit today, after the shattered body parts of the Jews were spread about in Mahane Yehuda."
(Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 9, 1997)Sheikh Hamed Bitawi, chairman of the Palestine Religious Scholars Association and head of the PA's Sharia Court of Appeals in Nablus, in a newspaper interview: "That which befell the infidel nations will also occur to the State of Israel. We are certain that Allah will destroy the State of Israel either through natural disasters, such as an earthquake, or at the hands of the Moslems, or both."
(Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, July 27, 1997)PA Youth and Sport Minister Talal Sadr: "All of Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian people, beginning with Acre, Haifa and Jaffa."
(Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, July 22, 1997)PA Mufti Ikrama Sabri in his weekly Friday prayer sermon at Al-Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount: "Oh Allah, destroy America for she is ruled by Zionist Jews Allah shall take revenge on behalf of his prophet against the colonialist settlers who are sons of monkeys and pigs Forgive us, Muhammad, for the acts of these sons of monkeys and pigs, who sought to harm your sanctity."
(Voice of Palestine, July 11, 1997)PA Deputy Minister of Supplies Abdel Hamid al-Qudsi in a speech before businessmen at the Chamber of Commerce in Tulkarem: "There is an Israeli mafia which is distributing spoiled food products under the aegis of Israeli generals in the territories of the Palestinian Authority they are distributors of death."
(Itim news agency, July 9, 1997)PA Deputy Minister of Supplies Abdel Hamid al-Qudsi in a newspaper interview: "Israel is distributing food containing material that causes cancer and hormones that harm male virility and other spoiled food products in the Palestinian Authority's territories in order to poison and harm the Palestinian population. We absolutely feel that it is an organized plan and conspiracy which is under the auspices of the Israel Defense Forces this is a planned and initiated war against the Palestinian people."
(Yediot Aharonot, June 25, 1997)Report from the daily news program on the Voice of Palestine, June 24, 1997:
"Announcer: The occupation is shooting at children, women and infants The latest reports reaching us from Hebron prove that the occupation forces have opened fire on children, women and infantsVoice of a Hebron resident: " our enemies have no mercy and no heart this shows that they have no conscience. Their hearts are like stone. They are not human beings. One can not compare them to people. They are like animals, they are like animals."
Abbas Zaki, member of the PA legislative council and the Fatah
central committee: "There is a plan which was prepared by the
Palestinian leadership with the aim of confronting Israel's
intransigence The Palestinian people is ready for a confrontation
and is prepared to make additional sacrifices the people are in a
state of preparedness."
(Al-Sharq al-Awsat, June 16, 1997)
Muhammad Dahlan, head of the PA's Preventive Security Service in
Gaza, in an
interview with the Hamas newspaper Al-Risallah: "The presence of
Hamas on Palestinian territory is very important for building the
Palestinian homeland."
(cited in Ha'aretz, June
15,1997)
Statement issued by Fatah after an emergency meeting on June 14,
1997: "The policy of settlements and land confiscation constitutes
organized state terror against the Palestinian lands. The
Palestinian people have the right to react to settlement terror via
all means."
(Voice of Palestine, June 14, 1997)
Lead editorial in the Fatah organization's newspaper: "Only the
uprising of the masses and the intifada in the Palestinian homeland
in September 1996 enabled the Palestinians to hope for
international and Arab support. It is this intifada which compelled
the Israeli side to implement the Oslo Accords. What distinguished
this intifada was its official nature. Palestinian security forces
took part side by side with the masses. Only once the flow of blood
began and Israelis died at the hands of the security forces'
gunfire did Netanyahu understand that his assumption that the
Palestinians and Arabs did not have other options was baseless.
Only then did he understand that he must get used to new realities
. Revolutionary violence, which enjoys international legitimacy as
a struggle against occupation, is the option that must be put on
the discussion table. This is the option that will bring about a
breakthrough in the current impasse and breathe new life in to the
agreements."
(cited in Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, June 4, 1997)
PA Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein at a press conference in
Ramallah explaining that the death penalty imposed on Arabs who
sell land to Jews will be applied to Israeli Arabs: "It is our
right to ban the sale of land (by Arabs to Jews) in Lod and Ramle
and other cities inside the 1948 borders."
(Agence France Presse,
May 27, 1997)
Arafat in an interview with a Russian newspaper (Novoya Vremya, May 25, 1997):
Q: Is it possible that the Palestinians will return to the armed struggle?
Arafat: Anything is possible.Q: Including the armed struggle?
Arafat: It is not possible to foresee what will happen to the entire region, not just in Palestine. The entire region is in danger and on the verge of complete chaos, as a result of violations of the peace agreement by Israel.Q: In your opinion, is Hamas a terrorist organization?
Arafat: The Hamas movement is one of many patriotic movements.Q: Even its military wing?
Arafat: Even its military wing. One should not forget that the movement took an active part in the intifada.Yusuf Abu Sneineh, preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque, in a Friday prayer sermon: "The struggle we are waging is an ideological struggle and the question is: where has the Islamic land of Palestine gone? Where is Haifa and Jaffa, Lod and Ramle, Acre, Safed and Tiberias? Where is Hebron and Jerusalem?"
Poem read on the Voice of Palestine, the official PA radio station, on May 22, 1997 during the morning news program "A New Day" as part of a series of "Songs of the Homeland". The same poem was read on the Voice of Palestine during the September 1996 riots:
"O our beautiful land imprisoned in a cage and surrounded by wolves,PA Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Feisal Husseini in a newspaper interview: "Israel is attempting to obstruct peace. If Israel continues to succeed in this approach, then she is destroying the peace process. The only option remaining for us will be an alternative option war. Allow me to say that it takes only one side to start a war. At the end of the path on which Israel is proceeding, a declaration of war awaits."
My shaded garden, the tormentors have destroyed you, and the dogs have settled in you,
O Jerusalem, O my city, With my notebook and pencil and the fire of my rifle I will shatter the cage,
I will kill the wolves and plant the flag,
The dogs will not bark in the heroic cities."
PA Mufti Sheikh Ikrama Sabri in a newspaper interview: "The Zionist
entity exists on seized land. The Jews remain enemies because they
expropriate lands, build settlements and pay high sums to buy
properties. They are the greatest enemies of us Muslims."
(The New
York Times, May 18, 1997)
Statement issued by the PA cabinet in Nablus on May 16, 1997: "We
did not pay with the dear blood of thousands of martyrs so that the
Israeli government could establish settlements on our land in the
name of peace. We have sacrificed in the past and we will be ready
to sacrifice again in the future for the sake of liberating our
land and returning it to the bosom of the Palestinian nation and
for the sake of establishing an independent Palestinian state whose
capital is Jerusalem."
(Voice of Palestine, May 17, 1997)
Imad Mazen Izz al-Din, the PA's Political Instructor for National
Guidance: "We shall always stand against them, threaten their
future, and not permit them to expand. We shall stand with all our
might against any attempted settlement effort. If they do not
implement the agreement, we shall determine what the essential
locations are in each settlement, and we will turn the lives of the
settlers into hell."
(Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, April 30, 1997)
PA Planning Minister Nabil Shaath at a forum in Khan Yunis: "All
options are open for defending the land of the Palestinian people."
(Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, April 30, 1997)
Arafat addressing a crowd in Tulkarem: "I now see the walls of
Jerusalem, the mosques of Jerusalem, the churches of Jerusalem. My
brothers! With blood and with spirit we will redeem you, Palestine!
Yes, with blood and with spirit we will redeem you, Palestine!"
(Voice of Palestine, April 28, 1997)
PA Cabinet Secretary Ahmad Abdul Rahman in a radio interview: "We
must not forget that the American administration suffers from a
disease whose name is the Zionist lobby in Washington."
(Voice of
Palestine, April 14, 1997)
Arafat, in a letter to the Conference of Businessmen for Jerusalem,
which was held in Jordan: "The settlements are a declaration of
total war against the Palestinian people, an open and destructive
war against our people, our land and our holy places. The Israeli
settlements on our land, in our Jerusalem and in the rest of the
West Bank are a war against the peace process."
(Al-Hayat
Al-Jadeeda, April 6, 1997)
PA Communications Minister Imad Falouji in an interview: "Rabin
understood the situation after paying a very steep price. After
Netanyahu sees blood in the streets, he will understand, too
Netanyahu is a beginner in politics. He hasn't gotten any big hit
yet. When he gets one of those hits, he will understand Everyone
- everyone - knew there would be a bomb before the Tel Aviv
explosion. And today, if things fail, I'm not going to be shocked
if Hamas is going to do something else."
(Miami Herald, April 5,
1997)
Farouk Kaddumi, Head of the PLO Political Department : "The only
option in this situation is to continue the uprising since this is
the only language which Israel understands."
(Al-Hayat, April 2,
1997)
Amin Maqbul, member of the Fatah Higher Council, at a Nablus rally:
"All options are open, including the armed struggle if necessary."
(Al-Quds, March 30, 1997)
Arafat in a speech before the meeting of Arab League Foreign
Ministers in Cairo: "Israel's actions are a lowly crime The
movement of Israeli tanks and armor, which ring Palestinian cities,
are a declaration of war against the Palestinian people . According
to international understandings, this is a war situation. The only
thing left for them is to use the atomic bomb."
(Middle East News
Agency and Agence France Presse, March 30, 1997)
PA Information Ministry press release of March 29, 1997: "Since the very beginning of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israeli governments were anxious to apply the most dangerous ethnic cleansing theory against the Palestinian people. According to their racist ideology, the Israeli policy makers were dedicated to capturing a land without a people for a people without a land."
Statement issued by the PA legislative council on March 27, 1997,
just 6 days after the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv: The Council
congratulates "all the holy martyrs resulting from the noble wave
of opposition to the Israeli Government's settlement activity."
(Maariv, March 28, 1997)
Marwan Barghouti, Fatah Secretary-General and PA Council member: "I don't think that stones are violence. It is peaceful to throw stones."
(Jerusalem Post, March 26, 1997)
PA Information Ministry press release of March 22, 1997: "Israeli settlement activity is another face of terror and its continuity only supports the Israeli terrorist policy against the Palestinian people and land."
Palestinian representative Nabil Ramlawi at a session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva: "Israeli authorities infected by injection 300 Palestinian children with the HIV virus during the years of the intifada."
(Jerusalem Post, March 17, 1997)
Othman Abu Gharbiya, PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Adviser on
National Political Guidance, in a radio interview: "We are fighting
and struggling with an enemy who is Shylock. We must know that he
is Shylock."
(Voice of Palestine, March 15, 1997)
PA Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman: "From now on, resisting
settlements will not be through words, condemnation or complaints
to the UN Security Council."
(Washington Post, March 10, 1997)
PA Information Ministry press release of February 26, 1997: "The Ministry of Information warns the Israeli government and its settlers that their crime will not pass quietly and that the Palestinian people has the right to defend itself and its land."
PA Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Feisal Husseini: "If Prime
Minister Netanyahu decides to build in Har Homa, this will be a
declaration of war on the Palestinians."
(Yediot Aharonot, February
18, 1997)
1996:
PA Information Ministry press release of November 14, 1996: "Naturally, the Palestinian people attains the absolute right to express its willingness to achieve independence through its intifada, which was crowned with the declaration of independence."
Hani al-Hasan, advisor to Chairman Arafat, at a memorial service
for Fathi Shikaki, the slain leader of Islamic Jihad: "Fathi
Shikaki is a giant among the giants of the Palestinian people, one
of the giants of the nation. He believed in Islam and he spread it.
He was the teacher of generations who understood that where there
is unity there is victory, and where there is fear there is defeat,
without connection to the views that one holds."
(An-Nahar, Oct.
29, 1996)
Arafat in an October 21 speech at the Dehaishe refugee camp: "We
know only one word: jihad, jihad, jihad. When we stopped the
intifada, we did not stop the jihad for the establishment of a
Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem. And we are now
entering the phase of the great jihad prior to the establishment of
an independent Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem.... We
are in a conflict with the Zionist movement and the Balfour
Declaration and all imperialist activities"
(Yediot Aharonot, Oct.
23, 1996).
Arafat to a delegation of Hebron Arab notables urging the use of
violence: "Have you run out of stones in Hebron? Prepare the
stones."
(Voice of Israel, Oct. 21, 1996).
Arafat in an October 10 speech before the Palestinian Council:
"Negotiations have achieved nothing up until now. As a consequence,
we must be ready in every way to confront all possibilities. You
must understand what I mean by this."
(Near East Report, Oct. 21,
1996)
Arafat in an interview with the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam,
calls for "mass confrontations in all cities and villages to
confront the Israeli aggression against Al-Aksa mosque"
(cited in
the New York Times, Oct. 4, 1996)
Arafat to Palestinian security forces in Gaza on September 24:
"They will fight for Allah, and they will kill and be killed, and
this is a solemn oath... Our blood is cheap compared with the cause
which has brought us together and which at moments separated us,
but shortly we will meet again in heaven... Palestine is our land
and Jerusalem is our capital"
(Maariv, Oct. 4, 1996).
On August 30, Muhammad Dahlan, a senior Gaza PA security official,
said: "The Palestinian Authority does not exclude the return to the
armed struggle, and it will then use its weapons."
(cited in the
Jerusalem Report, Nov. 28, 1996)
On August 6, Arafat called Israel a "demon" and urged Arabs to use
"all means" at their disposal to fight Israel
(The New York Times,
Aug. 7, 1996).
Arafat to a rally in Gaza: "We are committed to all martyrs who died for the cause of Jerusalem starting with Ahmed Musa until the last martyr Yihye Ayyash." (Jerusalem Post, July 28, 1996) Musa was the first member of Fatah to be killed in 1965, and Ayyash, known as "the Engineer", was the mastermind behind a series of Hamas suicide bombing attacks prior to his death in January 1996.
PA Mufti Sheikh Ikram Sabri in a sermon at Al-Aqsa Mosque:
Palestinians should "rise up with all their might against the
occupation."
(Jerusalem Post, June 14, 1996)
Arafat threatening Israel with violence: "If Israel rejects our
demands there will be a reaction and we have a 30,000 man armed
force."
(Israel Radio, June 7, 1996)
Arafat alleging that a secret Israeli military group, OAS, was
behind terror attacks against Israelis: "We have clues that some of
the recent operations in Israel were carried out in cooperation
with the OAS in Israel."
(Jerusalem Post, April 30, 1996)
PA Ministry of Information, in a statement issued to the media on April 22, comparing Israel's actions with those of the Nazis: "While the Israeli government is speaking about the atrocities committed against the Jews at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Dachau concentration camps... it is directly involved these days in weaving plots and causing two major catastrophes to their neighbors... Our homeland was transformed into a big concentration camp..."
Arafat claiming Israel supplied weapons to terrorist groups for
suicide bombings against Israelis: "These weapons could be obtained
only from high authorities with great influence on the Israeli
side."
(Jerusalem Post, March 22, 1996)
Arafat asserting that Israel armed Hamas and Islamic Jihad to carry
out attacks against Israelis: "We must remember that these
organizations were created by Israel, which also distributed arms
to them, so are we supposed to collect the arms Israel
distributed?"
(DPA German News Agency, Feb. 28, 1996)
PA Planning Minister Nabil Shaath at a symposium: "If the
negotiations reach a dead end, we shall go back to the struggle and
strife, as we did for 40 years. It is not beyond our
capabilities.... If and when Israel will say, `That's it, we won't
talk about Jerusalem, we won't return refugees, we won't dismantle
settlements, and we won't retreat from borders,' then all the acts
of violence will return. Except that this time we'll have 30,000
armed Palestinian soldiers who will operate in areas in which we
have unprecedented elements of freedom"
(Jerusalem Post, March 15,
1996).
Voice of Palestine on February 28 asserted that suicide bombing
attacks against Israelis were the work of Israeli Knesset Member
Rehavam Zeevi "and the Israeli extreme right-wing organization
Eyal."
(cited in the Jerusalem Post, March 15, 1996)
PA Planning Minister Nabil Shaath, in an interview with Le Monde:
"I am convinced, like Arafat, that these attacks could not have
been carried out without cooperation from Israeli extremists."
(cited in Haaretz, March 6, 1996)
Selim Zaanoun, acting chairman of the Palestinian National Council,
at Arafat's inauguration: "We are returning to Palestine, and we
are passing from the small jihad to the great jihad."
(Jerusalem
Post, Feb. 13, 1996)
Arafat on Yihye Ayyash, Hamas mastermind of suicide bombing attacks
against Israel: "a hero of the Palestinian people" and a "martyr."
(New York Times, Jan. 8, 1996)
1995
Arafat on the intifada: "Our oath is still in force and our
commitment is still valid - to continue in the path of the heroes
and the dead of the intifada."
(Jerusalem Post, Dec. 17, 1995)
Arafat in a radio address: "The struggle will continue until all of
Palestine is liberated."
(Voice of Palestine, Nov. 11, 1995)
Arafat on pre-1967 Israel: "Be blessed, O Gaza, and celebrate, for
your sons are returning after a long celebration. O Gaza, your sons
are returning. O Jaffa, O Lod, O Haifa, O Jerusalem, you are
returning, you are returning."
(Maariv, Sep. 7, 1995)
Arafat in a speech on September 3 publicly praising Abir al-Wahidi,
involved in murder of Israeli Zvi Klein in 1991, and Dalal
al-Maghrabi, who took part in Coastal Road Massacre in 1978 which
killed 37 Israelis: "Yes, we are proud of the Palestinian girl, the
Palestinian woman and the Palestinian child who fulfilled these
miracles. The Palestinian woman participated in the Palestinian
revolution. The Palestinian girl participated in the Palestinian
revolution. Abir al-Wahidi, commander of the central region and
Dalal al-Maghrabi, Martyr of Palestine. I bow in respect and
admiration to the Palestinian woman who receives her martyred son
with joyful cheering. The soul and blood for you, O Palestine!"
(Israel Channel Two Television, Sep. 19, 1995)
Arafat in August 1995: "The Israelis are mistaken if they think we
do not have an alternative to negotiations. By Allah I swear they
are wrong. The Palestinian people are prepared to sacrifice the
last boy and the last girl so that the Palestinian flag will be
flown over the walls, the churches and the mosques of Jerusalem."
(Haaretz, Sep. 6, 1995; The Jerusalem Post, Sep. 7, 1995)
Arafat in a speech in Gaza: "The soul and the blood we shall
sacrifice for thee, Palestine."
(Jerusalem Post, Aug. 3, 1995)
Arafat in a speech at Gaza's Al-Azhar University on June 19: "The
commitment still stands and the oath is still valid: that we will
continue this long jihad, this difficult jihad... via deaths, via
sacrifices." (The Jerusalem Post, Aug. 3, 1995) Arafat also praised
Dalal al-Maghrabi, one of the perpetrators of the 1978 Coastal Road
Massacre in which 37 Israelis were killed: "She was one of the
heroes... She commanded the group that established the first
Palestinian republic in a bus... This is the Palestinian woman...
the woman we are proud of." (Jerusalem Post Aug. 3, 1995) He
further stated, "We are all seekers of martyrdom in the path of
truth and right toward Jerusalem, the capital of the State of
Palestine."
(Haaretz, August 3, 1995)
Feisal Husseini in an interview: "There will be an intifada not
just in Jerusalem, but in all the occupied territories and in all
the Middle East."
(Voice of Israel, May 21; Haaretz, May 22, 1995)
PA Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein in a radio interview: "We
have a standing committee to follow up on the Jerusalem issue and
the latest relevant developments. There will also be popular moves
to mobilize resources in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, even
if this calls for a new intifada, no matter what impact this will
have."
(Cairo Radio, May 20, cited in FBIS, May 22, 1995)
PA Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein in a speech read in Arafat's
name at Gaza's Shawa Cultural Center: "I say once more that Israel
shall remain the principal enemy of the Palestinian people, not
only now but also in the future." (Voice of Palestine, May 12,
1995) One month previously, at Gaza's Al-Azhar University, Abu
Middein said, "We must remember that the main enemy of the
Palestinian people, now and forever, is Israel. This is a truth
that must never leave our minds."
(An-Nahar, Apr. 11, 1995; The
Jerusalem Post, Apr. 17, 1995)
Feisal Husseini in an interview with the Egyptian weekly Al-Arabi:
"If Israel continues to undermine the path to peace there will be
no other alternative but that called for by the Islamist
Palestinian opposition - the military option."
(Agence France
Presse, May 1, 1995)
Arafat, at a rally in Gaza, compared the Oslo Accord with the
temporary truce between Muhammad and the Quraish tribe, which was
later broken, and said, "We signed that agreement in Oslo, and if
any of you has one objection to it, I have one hundred objections."
(Voice of Palestine, April 16, cited in FBIS, April 18, 1995)
PA Mufti Sheikh Ikram Sabri: "Jerusalem is under occupation and the
Moslems of the world should liberate it by jihad and put it under
Islamic and Arabic authority. The jihad is not just a war jihad -
we are talking about all means to get back Jerusalem."
(Al-Sharq
al-Awsat, Apr. 7, 1995; The Jerusalem Post, May 3, 1995)
Arafat in a message marking Land Day: "We promise you, oh our great
nation, and we promise you, oh our pure martyrs, that we will
continue the revolution until the victory and until the flag of my
country flies over the towers of Jerusalem. This is a revolution
until victory."
(Voice of Palestine, March 31, 1995)
PA Planning Minister Nabil Shaath in an interview with Al-Watan on
February 28: "If it becomes certain that the negotiations process
with Israel is ending in failure, there will be no option other
than jihad."
(cited in FBIS, March 1, 1995)
Arafat in a speech relayed by telephone to a Hebron rally: "Our
nation is a nation of sacrifice, struggle and jihad."
(Voice of
Palestine, Feb. 14, 1995)
Arafat in a speech in Gaza: "We are all on our way to die as heroes
on the road to Jerusalem, the capital of the state of Palestine."
(Jerusalem Post, Jan. 30, 1995)
Arafat in a speech in Gaza in January 1995: "All of us are willing
to be martyrs along the way, until our flag flies over Jerusalem,
the capital of Palestine. Let no one think they can scare us with
weapons, for we have mightier weapons - the weapon of faith, the
weapon of martyrdom, the weapon of jihad."
(Parade Magazine, New
York Newsday, June 25, 1995)
Arafat in a speech on the 30th anniversary of Fatah's founding: "We
are going to continue the Palestinian revolution until the last
martyr to create a Palestinian state." (AFP, Jan. 1, 1995) He
further stated, "We are all seekers of martyrdom... I say to the
martyrs who died, to the martyrs who are still alive, we hold to
the oath, we hold to the commitment to continue the revolution..."
(Palestinian TV Jan. 1, 1995)
1994:
Arafat in an address to the Organization of the Islamic Conference:
"The glorious Islamic solidarity together with our people's jihad
is an additional inducement for the realization of our hopes."
(Voice of Palestine, Dec. 15, 1994)
Arafat at a rally in Gaza: "Our people will continue with its
jihad."
(Haaretz, Nov. 22, 1994)
Arafat during a speech in Gaza: "Today, we are celebrating our
independence for the first time on Palestinian land, and we will
continue to celebrate on Palestinian lands that will be freed from
the Zionist enemy. We will take all open and freed land, and we
will establish our state on those territories from which the
Israeli enemy leaves."
(Yediot Aharonot, Nov. 16, 1994)
Arafat in a letter to Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Yassin and
Hamas terrorist Sheikh Hunam, who killed 14 Israelis in an attack
on Bus 405 in 1989: "My brother, Sheikh Yassin, my brother the holy
Sheikh Abdelhadi Hunam, I recognize your participation in the
struggle to free Palestine. Because of you, Palestine is free."
(Haaretz, Oct. 5, 1994)
Arafat in a letter to Saddam Hussein: "The Palestinian people will
continue their war until the establishment of a state whose capital
will be Jerusalem."
(Yediot Aharonot, July 24, 1994)
Jibril Rajoub in an interview: "We will continue to fight until the
creation of a state with Jerusalem as its capital."
(Agence France
Presse, May 31, 1994)
Rashid Abu-Shbak, a senior PA security official, on pre-1967
Israel: "The light which has shone over Gaza and Jericho will also
reach the Negev and the Galilee."
(Yediot Aharonot, May 29, 1994)
Jibril Rajoub in a lecture at Bethlehem University: "We sanctify
the weapons found in the possession of the national factions which
are directed against the occupation.... If there are those who
oppose the agreement with Israel, the gates are open to them to
intensify the armed struggle."
(Yediot Aharonot, May 27, 1994)
Arafat at a mosque in Johannesburg, South Africa on May 10, 1994:
"The jihad will continue... You have to understand our main battle
is Jerusalem... You have to come and to fight a jihad to liberate
Jerusalem, your precious shrine... No, it is not their capital. It
is our capital." (Israel Radio, May 17, 1994; Jerusalem Post, May
18, 1994) Arafat further stated that the Oslo Accord was akin to
the temporary truce between Muhammad and the Quraish tribe, which
was later broken: "This agreement, I am not considering it more
than the agreement which had been signed between our prophet
Muhammad and Quraish, and you remember that the Caliph Omar had
refused this agreement and considered it a despicable truce... But
the same way Muhammad had accepted it, we are now accepting this
peace effort."
(Haaretz, May 23, 1994)
Jibril Rajoub in an interview: "Rabin has to remove all the
settlers from the West Bank and Gaza and transfer them to hell." He
also warned: "We shall distribute weapons to the Palestinian
residents and return to the armed struggle."
(Yediot Aharonot,
March 4, 1994)
Arafat during a speech in Gaza: "The heroic intifada, which has
entered its seventh year, is an extension of the 29-year-old
Palestinian revolution and will go on relentlessly... It is
continuing, continuing, continuing."
(Associated Press, Jan. 7,
1994)
1993 (after the Oslo Accords were made public):
Arafat in a radio address: "It is a revolution until victory, until
victory, until victory."
(Algiers Voice of Palestine, Dec. 31,
1993)
Feisal Husseini in a speech at Bir Zeit University on November 22:
"Everything you see and hear today is for tactical and strategic
reasons. We have not given up the rifle. We still have armed gangs
the areas and if we do not get our state we will take them out of
the closet and fight again."
(Maariv, Nov. 24, 1993)
Voice of Palestine report: "Yasser Arafat stressed the continuation
of struggle until the Palestinian flag is hoisted over Jerusalem's
walls."
(Voice of Palestine, Oct. 24, 1993)
Arafat in a speech on Jordanian TV: "Palestine is only a stone's
throw away for a small Palestinian boy or girl."
(Jordanian TV,
Sep. 13, 1993)
Arafat asserting that the Oslo Accord is part of the PLO's 1974
phased plan for Israel's destruction: "[the agreement] will be a
basis for an independent Palestinian state in accordance with the
Palestine National Council resolution issued in 1974... The PNC
resolution issued in 1974 calls for the establishment of a national
authority on any part of Palestinian soil from which Israel
withdraws or which is liberated."
(Radio Monte Carlo, Sep. 1, 1993)
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