December 2, 1997
Yasir Arafat and the PLO have public reaffirmed their
backing for Iraq in its conflict with the United States, and the Zionist
Organization of America (ZOA) is criticizing the Clinton administration’s
failure to protest Arafat’s support for Iraq.
The official newspaper of the PLO’s Palestinian Authority, Al-Hayat
Al-Jadida, published an article on November 30, 1997, but its editor, Hafez
al-Barghouti, in which he suggested that American’s stance towards Iraq is
a reflection of “the theory of Western superiority over the entire Arab
people, which dreams of destroying the Arab race, since it opposes American evil
which inherited the old and the new colonialism.”
Meanwhile, the pro-PLO newspaper Al Quds reported on November 30, 1997,
that “Under the auspices of President Arafat, a meeting in support of the
Iraqi people was held yesterday in Hebron …The Secretary-General of the
Presidency , Al-Tayyib Abd Al-Rahim, delivered
President Arafat’s blessing to the brother Iraqi people and its leadership,
since the two people, Iraqi and Palestinian, are together in the same
trench.”
(Translations courtesy of Palestinian Media Review.)
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “When other regimes
support Iraq, the Clinton administration condemns them; why is Clinton
silent about Yasir Arafat supporting Iraq? Has the administration’s Middle East
policy become so tilted in favor of the Palestinian Arabs that it is
willing to overlook Arafat’s collaboration with America’s arch-enemy, Iraq?”
Other recent pro-Iraq statements by Arafat and the PLO/PA:
- The PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah, in a November 15, 1997
editorial by editor Hafez al-Barghouti, described the United States as “the
murderers of humanity, the creators of the barbaric
culture, and the blood-suckers of the nations, who are doomed to
death and destined to shrink to a microscopic size, like Micronesia.” -
The PA’s other newspaper, Al Ayyam, published an article by
columnist Khalil al-Sawahri on November 18, 1997, describing the tension
between the U.S. and Iraq as “a crisis between the mighty evil empire and
the Iraqi people who are sinking under the burden of hunger, diseases and
siege…The hateful Western racism is trying to wipe Iraq off the face of
the earth just like it erased the Arab rule in general and deprived it of the
ability to exist independently of the American-Zionist hegemony.” - The Jerusalem Post reported on November 6, 1997, that
Palestinian Authority’s embassy in Baghdad “is being used as a repository for secret
documents that relate to Iraq’s buildup of unconventional weapons…he
site’s diplomatic immunity evidently keeps the documents beyond the reach
of United Nations arms inspectors. The documents relate to the purchase of raw
materials required for Iraq’s manufacture and deployment of weapons of mass
destruction chemical weapons, VX nerve gas, and possibly
nuclear arms.” The Post noted that the PA embassy “is situated in Arafat’s private
residence in Baghdad, a heavily guarded palatial structure well inside a
compound.” - An official Palestinian Authority delegation met in Baghdad in
September 1997 with Udai Hussein, son of the Iraqi dictator, “in a warm and
friendly atmosphere.” The younger Hussein “said that Palestine is dear
both to his father and himself, and that the liberation of Jerusalem is one of his
primary concerns, and is close to the heart of the entire Iraqi people.”
Hussein “added that Iraq is open to our Palestinian brothers.” He also
“reminded members of the Palestinian delegation that the Iraqi military has
participated in all of the wars which have taken place in the struggle for Palestine.”
(Khaled Abu Taomeh, reporting in the Jerusalem newspaper Yerushalayim, September 5,
1997) - The official Iraqi News Agency, in Baghdad, reported on July 10,
1997 that 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. Ramadan expressed on behalf of President Saddam
Hussein his thanks to his brother President Arafat…” - The PLO’s Palestinian Legislative Council denounced the U.S.
strike in western Iraq (in response to Iraqi attacks on Kurds there in 1996), as
“American aggression against the sister state, Iraq.” The PA also called
upon the United Nations to take action to “end this arrogance,” and 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)
