March 25, 1997
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) shares the
concerns expressed by the group of Members of Knesset who have publicized
the PLO’s widespread use of maps showing all of Israel as “Palestine.”
The Knesset Members, led by MK Michael Kleiner (Gesher Party),
revealed the maps following a meeting with Palestinian Media Review, an independent
Israeli organization that monitors the PLO media.
Among others things, the Israel-as-Palestine map appears on:
- The official letterhead of the PLO.
-
The maps on the walls of Yasir Arafat’s office and the offices
of other PLO and PA officials. - Maps appearing on PLO Television broadcasts.
- The decorations at the December 1996 PLO Song Fest.
- The decorations at January 1997 “PLO Day” celebrations.
- The official emblems and maps in PLO-controlled schools.
- The insignia of various Palestinian Authority branches.
- The shoulder-patch on the uniforms of PLO policemen.
-
In the election material distributed by Arafat’s Fatah faction
of the PLO in the 1996 elections in the territories.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein, who visited Israel in
February and March, personally inspected the giant stone monument erected by the PLO
on the Bethlehem-Hebron road, in honor of the “martyrs of the intifada.” The
monument is in the shape of a map of “Palestine,” including all of Israel.
“These maps, combined with Arafat’s speeches praising terrorists as
‘heroes’ and his declarations that the Oslo accords are part of the PLO’s
1974 phased plan for destroying Israel, send a message, in a very visual and
graphic manner, that the PLO’s goal is still the eventual destruction of Israel,”
said ZOA president Klein. “The use of these maps is another way in which Arafat
and the PLO encourage the murder of Jews.”
