Palestinian Authority

In clear violation of Israeli-Palestinian agreements in which the Palestinians committed themselves to prevent incitement to violence against Israel and to actively combat terrorism, Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Yasir Arafat has permitted the Palestinian media and Islamic religious leaders to preach violence against Jews and Israel, released Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists from PA jails, and has reportedly been conducting negotiations with Hamas leaders about forming joint policies toward Israel.

On October 13, 2000, according to the media research organization MEMRI, PA television broadcast live a Friday sermon from a mosque in Gaza. The speaker, Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya, a PA official, said: "... the Jews... they are the terrorists. They are the ones who must be butchered and killed, as Allah the Almighty said: 'Fight them: Allah will torture them at your hands, and will humiliate them and will help you to overcome them'... Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, in any country. Fight them, wherever you are. Wherever you meet them, kill them. Wherever you are, kill those Jews and those Americans who are like them and those who stand by them..."

In addition to failing to stop incitement to violence, PA officials have released from PA prisons Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who have committed terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. According to media reports, senior Fatah officials are cooperating closely with Islamic militants in directing the violence of the uprising. And, according to Israeli officials, Palestinians who have killed Israeli civilians are given refuge in PA-controlled areas.

Following unprovoked shooting attacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip which killed two Israeli civilians and two Israeli soldiers in mid-November, senior Fatah leader and commander of the Tanzim forces Marwan Barghouti issued a statement that the attacks were "legitimate" considering the current situation and the PA struggle for independence. He also promised that such attacks would continue and increase in intensity.

A recent opinion poll conducted by Bir Zeit University and reported on in The Jerusalem Post indicates disturbing trends regarding Palestinian attitudes toward violence against Israel and U.S. targets. Eighty percent of Palestinians polled support armed attacks against Israeli targets, compared with 33 percent in 1995. Forty-one percent polled support such attacks against any Israeli target while 38 percent believe attacks should be directed against Israeli soldiers and settlers only. Regarding attacks against the U.S., 73 percent of those polled favor suicide attacks against U.S. interests in the Middle East.

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