PLO Mufti’s “Destroy America” Speech is Latest of Many Anti-American Actions

September 16, 1997

The PLO-appointed Mufti (top Islamic religious authority)
Sheikh Ikrama Sabri, has again publicly appealed to “destroy America,” and
the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is urging the Clinton administration
demand that Yasir Arafat fire Sabri and publicly repudiate Sabri’s
statements.

Sheikh Sabri, in his weekly sermon at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque on
September 12, 1997, declared: “Oh Allah, destroy America, her agents, and
her allies! Cast them into their own traps, and cover the White House with
black!”

The speech was broadcast on the PLO’s Voice of Palestine Radio,
immediately after it broadcast a speech by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Two months ago, in his weekly sermon at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque on
July 11, 1997, Sabri declared: “Oh Allah, destroy America, for she is
ruled by Zionist Jews! Allah will paint the White House black!”

Morton A. Klein, ZOA National President, said: “The Clinton
administration should demand that Yasir Arafat immediately fire Mufti
Ikrama Sabri and publicly repudiate Sabri’s vicious anti-American statements.”
The ZOA president urged President Clinton to suspend the transfer of U.S. funds
to Palestinian Arab projects via the Agency for International Development
(A.I.D.), until Sabri is fired.

Other anti-American statements and actions by the PLO:

I. PLO’s Sheltering of Killers of Americans

• The PLO has refused to hand over to either Israel or the U.S. four
  terrorists who have been identified as suspects in recent murders of
  Americans:
  Nabil Sharihi, who helped prepare the
  bomb for the April 1995 attack in which Alisa Flatow of New Jersey was
  murdered; Muhi a-Din a-Sharif and Abd al-Majid Dudin, who were involved in
  planning and preparing the August 1995 bombing in which Joan Davenny of
  Connecticut was murdered; and Amjad Hanawi, one of those who carried out
  the May 1996 shooting in which David Boim, an Israeli-American, was murdered.

• Two of the PLO terrorists involved in planning the Munich Olympics
  massacre, in which David Berger, an Israeli-American athlete was killed,
  reside in PLO territory. Amin el-Hindi is chief of Palestinian General
  Intelligence; Abu Daoud is a resident of PLO-controlled Ramallah.

• Another PLO official, Abdul Latif Abu Hijleh, has been implicated in
  the PLO’s murder of the U.S. ambassador to Sudan in 1973, Cleo Noel
  (Jerusalem Post, January 8, 1989).

• The PLO has refused to arrest Abul Abbas, mastermind of the 1985
  Achille Lauro hijacking in which American tourist Leon Klinghoffer was
  murdered. Abbas freely enters and leaves PLO territory without being
  detained.

II. PLO’s Alliance with Iraq

• A Palestinian Authority delegation met in Baghdad in September 1997
  with Udai Hussein, son of the Iraqi dictator, “in a warm and friendly
  atmosphere.” (Khaled Abu Taomeh, reporting in the Jerusalem newspaper
  Yerushalayim, September 5, 1997)

• In July 1997, according to the official Iraqi News Agency, in
  Baghdad (July 10, 1997), Arafat sent a message which “conveyed the
  greetings of the Palestinian president to President Saddam Hussein and reiterated the
  Palestinian people’s pride in their close relations with the Iraqi people
  and in the principled and firm Iraqi positions in the face of the challenges
  and conspiracies implemented by the enemies of the Arab nation.”

• The PLO’s Palestinian Legislative Council denounced the U.S. missile
  strike in western Iraq (in response to Iraqi attacks on Kurds there last
  year), as “American aggression against the sister state, Iraq.” The PA also urged
  Arab states to provide Iraq “any form of financial aid and moral
  support…so that sister Iraq can recapture her natural place in the taking of the
  national and pan-Arab responsibility.” (An Nahar, Sept. 5, 1996)

• Arafat visited Iraq in 1993, met with Saddam, and hailed “the
  greatness of the Iraqi people and their leader.” (Jerusalem Post, Feb. 3,
  1993)

• In 1991, the PLO representative in Washington, Hassan Abu Rahman,
  circulated a fabricated transcript of a radio interview in which U.S.
  General Norman Schwarzkopf supposedly “admitted” that
  “the war that our men fought against Saddam Hussein was for Israel, our
  men fought to destroy Israel’s main enemy in the region.” (Jerusalem Post, June
  5, 1991)

• During the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf crisis, PLO chairman Yasir Arafat
  was Saddam Hussein’s closest Arab ally. After the Iraqi occupation of
  Kuwait, the PLO denounced America’s opposition to the occupation, accusing
  Washington of “beating the drums of a destructive war and raising tension toward a
  complete explosion.” (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 14, 1990)

• According to the London Independent, “much of the logistical
  planning for the Iraqi invasion was based on intelligence supplied by PLO
  officials and supporters based in Kuwait.” (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 8, 1990)

III. PLO’s Support for Massacre of Students in China