SENIOR PALESTINIAN OFFICIALS CONTINUE TO INCITE AGAINST ISRAEL IN VIOLATION OF OSLO

The Agreement

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."

The Violations

• "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."
  —poem read on the PA's Voice of Palestine on May 22, 1997 during the morning news program "A New Day". It was read as part of a series of "Songs of the Homeland". During the September 1996 riots, the Voice of Palestine replayed the poem.

• "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."
  —PA Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Feisal Husseini in a newspaper interview (Al-Ittihad, May 18, 1997)

• "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!"
  —PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, addressing a crowd in Tulkarem (Voice of Palestine, April 28, 1997)

• "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."
  —Imad Mazen Izz al-Din, the PA's Political Instructor for National Guidance (Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, April 30, 1997)

• "All options are open for defending the land of the Palestinian people."
  —PA Planning Minister Nabil Shaath, at a forum in Khan Yunis (Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, April 30, 1997)

• "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."
  —PA Mufti Ikrama Sabri in a newspaper interview (The New York Times, May 18, 1997)

• "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?"
  —Yusuf Abu Sneineh, preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque, in a Friday prayer sermon (Voice of Palestine, May 23, 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."
  —from a statement issued by the PA cabinet in Nablus on May 16, 1997 (Voice of Palestine, May 17, 1997)

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