March 25, 1997
The PLO’s “Foreign Minister,” Farouk Kaddoumi, has
publicly praised the latest Hamas suicide bombing, in which 3 Jews were murdered and
45 injured, and PLO chairman Yasir Arafat has again publicly spoken of the
need for jihad (Islamic holy war) against Israel.
Speaking to an Islamic conference in Pakistan, Kaddoumi defended
the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv: “This is self-defense by the Palestinian
people.
It is the right of all people to defend themselves if they are being
occupied.”
(Associated Press, March 23, 1997)
Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in his remarks at
the conference, praised the speech made at the conference by PLO Chairman Yasir
Arafat. Rafsanjani praised Arafat and Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Musa
for “speaking like revolutionaries again…rather than quoting verses from the
Koran about peace, both quoted verses about jihad.”
Last November, in an interview with the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahrar
earlier this month, Kaddoumi said: “Actions of Palestinian self-sacrifice
are one of the elements of pressure on Israel, and they are necessary
activities at certain times.” In addition, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported
(November 26, 1996) that Kaddoumi “told a London magazine that some suicide bombings
against Israel were justified.”
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “The statements by
Kaddoumi and Arafat encourage the murder of Jews. The Clinton
administration should use its $500-million aid package to the PLO as leverage to force
Arafat to stop such anti-peace behavior.”
