h4>Zionist Organization of America News Release, February 13, 2003
The Israeli government has released documents recently captured in the offices
of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, which prove the PA has been
actively involved in sponsoring and promoting terrorism against Israel since at
least 1996.
The documents also provide additional evidence that the mass Palestinian Arab
violence that began on September 28, 2000 was carefully planned and
organized by the PA, and was not a spontaneous response to Ariel Sharon’s
visit to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site.
The documents, together with information provided by a captured PA security
officer, Yusuf Mukdoud, reveal:
* In September 2000, Mukdoud was instructed by his commander, PA security
forces Captain Nabil Hadhoud, to participate in the mass production of illegal
weapons. Mukdoud served as the conduit through which money was
transferred from the PA’s Palestinian Preventive Security Service to Fatah
terrorists to finance the operations of factories to manufacture illegal weapons.
* Since at least 1996, the PA’s Palestinian Preventive Security Service had
been providing large sums of money to Hina Bakar, a colonel in Yasir Arafat’s
“Force 17” unit who is also a major manufacturer of illegal weapons. Bakar
worked closely with Abu Tarad (aka Talal Mukhsin), a senior Fatah terrorist
involved in the mass production of illegal weapons. The documents tracing the
transfer of PA funds to Baka and Tarad indicate transfers ranging from $50,000
to $150,000 each time.
* The funds given by the PA to Baka were transferred by Abu Smalah, who at
that time served as assistant head of operations for the Palestinian Preventive
Security Service. The funds given by the PA to Tarad were transferred by the
inspector-general of the Security Service, Samir Mashariu and his deputy,
Mahmud Prag. Funds were also transferred from the PA to Tarad by Abu
Hatam, who at the time was deputy to then-PA security services chief
Mohammed Dahlan.
* One document refers to the planned establishment of a weapons workshop
that would produce between 400-500 mortar rockets each month. Such rockets
are frequently fired at Israeli villages by PA forces and other terrorists,
especially in Gaza and southern Israel.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “The latest confirmation that the
PA security forces have been involved in terrorism against Israel since at least
1996 – when the PA was claiming that only Hamas and Islamic Jihad were
responsible for the terror – demonstrates that the PA cannot be ‘reformed’; it is
an evil regime that must be completely dismantled and outlawed.
To give the PA a sovereign state would be to create a new terrorist
regime – at a time when President Bush has pledged to put an end to terrorist
states.”
A new report by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has found that
during the months following President Bush’s major Middle East policy speech,
the Palestinian Arabs have not fulfilled any of the conditions that the president
set forth before the U.S. will support creation of a Palestinian Arab state.
For a free copy of the report, titled Six Months Since the Bush Middle
East Speech, please call the ZOA at 212-481-1500.
