MEMRI, October 8, 2000
Middle East Media & Research Institute (MEMRI)
is an independent, non-profit organization providing translations of the Arab media
and original analysis and research on developments in the Middle East.
Arab Action Expected
Speaking to a conference in Tunis, PA Chairman Yasir Arafat said:
“Just as the Palestinian and Tunisian blood mixed at Hamam al-Shat so will the Palestinian blood mix with
the Arab blood in defense of the legitimate rights of our people – at the
head of which is the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as
its capital⦠Whether some like it or not.” (1)
PA National Guidance Directorate Head Mazen ‘Izz Al-Din proposed, among
other things, that:
“The continuation of the Palestinian bloodshed might
push part of the Arab military to carry out military operations against
Israel. As in the case of the Egyptian soldier Suleiman Khater and the
Jordanian soldier Al-Daqamsa who both dared to kill groups of Jews. Also,
Palestinian bloodshed will push parts of the Arab countries to launch
missiles against Israel as the President of Iraq did in 1991 when he
launched 39 missiles against Tel-Aviv.” (2)
Calls for Continued Violence
PLO Representative for Refugee Affairs As’ad Abd Al-Rahman said, “The
negotiations that are being conducted between the Palestinian and Israeli
sides are negotiations of blood. Despite the many casualties the
Palestinian people are inclined to continue the confrontation because it is
beginning to bear fruit.” (3)
PLO Executive Committee Committee, Abu Mazen, at a reception for a
delegation of Arab intellectuals and poets, said “I don’t see an end to the
clashes in the foreseeable future. The clashes between the helpless Arab
people and the mighty occupation army will not end soon.” (4)
PA Minister of Supplies, Abd Al-Aziz Shaheen, stated “We will turn ourselves
into invisible bombs against soldiers. The blood will always
defeat the sword. This is human history.” (5)
Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member and Chair of the PLC’s Land
Committee Salah Al-Ta’mari, stated, “The Israeli soldiers must be routed
from Rachel’s Tomb and the area in its entirety should be returned to the
boundaries of Bethlehem .” (6)
Jerusalem and the Refugees
The Arafat appointed Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Ikrimi Sabri said,
“There is no room for compromising solutions with regard to occuppied
Jerusalem. Israeli citizenship is forbidden for Palestinians according
Shari’a those who have already acquired it should give it up
because it does not honor them particularly since Israel’s days are
numbered. (7)
Abu Mazen said, “Israel is fully responsible for the creation of the refugee
problem. It is Israel that forced them out of their towns and villages by
using all forms of violence against them in 1948 through its army and armed
gangs. These facts were admitted by the New Historians who revealed in
their books the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people. Their return
will not be to the future Palestinian state but to their lands from which
they were driven out in 1948.” (8)
A Fatah Communiqué
On October 8, 2000, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, published a communiqué from the
Supreme Committee of the Fatah Movement. The Fatah movement is a group
within the PLO that is directly controlled by Arafat. Following are
excerpts from the 13 point communiqué:
Point 1: “The Fatah movement asserts the to continue the Intifada of
Al-Quds with all its activities. It calls upon all its courageous sons who
led the ranks of fighters in all confrontations to continue their struggle
and escalate it even more⦔
Point 2: “The movement blesses and esteems our brothers in the security
apparatuses who defend their people with their blood.”
Point 4: “The Movement calls upon our people to prevent joint patrols from
passing through the PA areas and calls for the suspending security
coordination with Israel.”
Point 5: “It calls upon to cut all bypass roads and stop the
movements of the settlers.”
Point 11: “It calls upon the people to participate in women’s parades which
will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 10 in various districts of the homeland.”
Point 12: “It calls upon the people to participate in Arab rage marches on
Friday, Oct. 13 after Friday prayers.”
Point 13: “The movement blesses our people on the liberation of Joseph’s
Tomb by the fighting arms of the Fatah on the way towards the liberation of
all of sites of the homeland.”
“Revolution until victory until victory until victory!”
Sha’ath the PLO’s Strategy
Following are excerpts from an October 7, 2000, interview with Palestinian
Authority (PA) Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nabil
Sha’ath to the ANN Channel, an Arabic language, London based, satellite TV
channel:
QUESTION: Is the Palestinian leadership saying ‘we support negotiations,
settlement, peace,’ or is it turning things upside down in the direction
demanded by the opposition?
SHA’ATH: Historically many people fought and negotiated at the same
timeâ¦There are many examples of thisâ¦Vietnam, Algeria⦠special conditions
were created that forced negotiations on us as an
alternative to fighting. But that too has a limit⦠The Palestinian people
should not limit either its popular activity or its political activityâ¦
QUESTION: Can we say then that the Intifada is another weapon in the
negotiations?
SHA’ATH: â¦Negotiations with Syria were conducted parallel to the fighting in
Lebanon⦠The question is not a question of a specific choice saying that
this is the time for negotiations and this is the time for fighting⦠But
the political way of action has its limits too, when sixty martyrs fall⦠it
is the right of the Palestinian people to burst out. It is the right of the
people and its leadership to take all measures for the liberation of the
homeland.
QUESTION: Have you ever considered the option of refusing to negotiate?
SHA’ATH: Under no conditions will the PA oppose its people when they rise up
in Intifada. There is always a certain limit after which the PA would say
there is no use in these negotiations being conducted parallel to the
Intifada. After all even if the Intifada succeeds it has to lead to
negotiations again. You cannot leave our people with only one option when
they fight an enemy that is ten times stronger. You cannot exclude the use
of any weapon that can be used with international legitimacy in order to end
the occupation of our lands. International legitimacy – that is resolution 242.
This option of fighting to force the occupation out was removed⦠when there
was a hope that negotiations would lead to Israel’s leaving all the
territories occupied in 1967. But there always existed the⦠possibility
that Israel won’t leave. Therefore President Arafat always said, ‘All
options are open.’
No one believed him when he said that, but in fact
throughout the period negotiating three ‘Intifadas’ occurredâ¦. The
Palestinian people never ceased during seven years of negotiations from
bursting out into ‘Intifadas’ against Israel and from saying its words in
ways different from the way of the negotiating table.
â¦I don’t want anyone to be surprised that
the Palestinian people are engaged in an Intifada. This is not the first
time. Eighty years ago the Palestinian people were already fighting the
Zionist existence and the British occupation â¦
The Palestinian people are a fighting people using weapons, martyrdom,
‘Intifadas,’ and suicide bombings. It is his fate to fight and negotiate at
one and the same time.
QUESTION: If tomorrow it is agreed to return to negotations will you stop
the Intifada?
SHA’ATH: Israel always says: ‘stop the Intifada in order for us to return to
negotiations.’ Israel said it from day one. But the Intifada would not
stop. I believe that today we are absolutely not speaking any longer about
resuming negotiations. Now we are talking about⦠an Israel withdrawal and
about the need to stop the Israeli occupationâ¦. Namely full withdrawal to
the June 4, 1967 lines and the return of the refugeesâ¦
QUESTION: Why aren’t you releasing the Jihad warriors from PA jails?
SHA’ATH: Had it not been for the siege that is imposed on us and for the
danger that Israel would try to assassinate or kidnap those people – we
would have released them all. we protect them.
â¦the agreement with Israel states that any act of killing or injuring
Israelis gives Israel the right to demand the perpetrator’s extradition
unless the PA tries them. Therefore their arrest and trial by us were
always the necessary minimum to protect those people from being kidnapped,
arrested, or assassinated by Israel.”
Endnotes:
(1) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), October 7, 2000.
(2) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, October 7, 2000.
(3) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, October 7, 2000.
(4) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, October 7, 2000.
(5) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, October 8, 2000.
(6) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, October 8, 2000.
(7) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, October 5, 2000.
(8) Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, October 7, 2000.
