Palestinian Incitement
to Violence Since Oslo:
A Four-Year Compendium

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.

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.

Arafat: The Hamas movement is one of many patriotic movements.

Arafat: Even its military wing. One should not forget that the movement took an active part in the intifada.

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,
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)