Senior PA Official Says Violence Against Israel Is "Legitimate Resistance," Not Terrorism

The Zionist Organization of America ^ | June 16, 2003 | News Release

[yonif]

News Release

The Zionist Organization of America

Jacob & Libby Goodman ZOA House	Phone: 212-481-1500
4 East 34th St. New York, NY 10016	Fax: 212-481-1515
e-mail: email@zoa.org	Web Site: www.zoa.org

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June 16, 2003

Contact: (212-481-1500)

Senior PA Official Says Violence Against Israel
Is "Legitimate Resistance," Not Terrorism

    NEW YORK- The Palestinian Authority's Minister of Information has declared that Palestinian Arab violence against Israelis is "legitimate resistance."

    PA Minister of Information Nabil Amr said (Doha Al-Jazira Television, June 14, 2003): "As regards the word terrorism, I do not know why when the Palestinians denounce the word terrorism, certain people think that this means resistance. There is no text anywhere that says that the Palestinian people's resistance is terrorism, which we denounce...Yes, we denounce terrorism. Anyone who says that denouncing terrorism means denouncing resistance is doing an injustice to legitimate resistance and is in effect labeling it with terrorism."

    The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) points out that President Bush's Road Map plan requires the Palestinian Arabs not only to halt all "terrorism," but also all "violence," regardless of whether or not the PA considers the violence legitimate.

    ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: "The PA's attempt to justify ongoing violence against Israelis is its most blatant violation yet of President Bush's Road Map plan. Why is the Bush administration silent in the face of these outrageous PA statements?"

    He added: "Nabil Amr's remarks make it clear that Abu Mazen recent statements allegedly renouncing terrorism are tricks and lies, just as Yasir Arafat's similar statements over the years proved to be tricks and lies."

    The ZOA notes that PA prime minister Abu Mazen, in his first press conference (Doha Al-Jazira Television, June 3, 2003), was asked about his previous statements suggesting a temporary halt to some types of terrorist attacks. He replied: "We called for ending the militarization of the intifada. Nobody can prevent people from expressing the popular stand through peaceful means, as was the case in the first intifada." That "peaceful intifada" actually included thousands of firebomb attacks, stabbings, and stonings; steering a bus into a ravine off the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway, murdering 16 people (including an American woman, attorney Rita Levine of Philadelphia) [July 1989]; hijacking a Beersheba bus and murdering 3 passengers [March 1988]; grenade attack on the Haifa mall, wounding 25 people. [August 1988]

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    The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.

[yonif]

This PA-PLO is the terrorist orgnization we just gave $300Million to. This is the organization we refuse to see as terrorist. This is the organization Fleicher states is "not a problem." This the organization whose "PM" we trust and who Bush supports. This is the terrorist organization who will be heading the "Palestinian" State.

[DonQ]

So what the %%%%%%% is the point of the %%%%%%% "Road Map"????

[yonif]

Oh, and this is the organization our government believes and the Arab world our government believes when they condemn "terrorism." They do not understand that their definition of terrorism is not the same.

[sheik yerbouty]

Smiting the jihad filth is justice.

[Van Jenerette]

Please, don't let Native American Indians see this! Especially those with claims against the Federal or State governments over land treaties!

[MEG33]

If it weren't for Bush,there would be no problems.

[Feckless]

Then I would submit that carpet bombing Palestinan areas, to include cluster bombs and napalm are "legitimate responses" to PA attacks. See how long they hold their opinion.

[Enduring Freedom]

I have a simple suggestion to Israel.

Destroy them.

You won't have to explain a thing, at least, not to me.

I understand, perfectly.