NEW YORK- In the wake of the latest suicide bombing massacre carried out by a Palestinian Authority police officer, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is urging the Bush administration to immediately suspend all U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority police and security forces.

The terrorist who massacred at least 10 Israelis in a Jerusalem bus bombing on January 29, 2004 was Ali Yusuf Jaara, a PA police officer who was formerly a member of Yasir Arafat’s terrorist Fatah Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade. This was just the latest of many instances in which PA police and security personnel were involved in terrorism against Israel. (See list below.)

The U.S. has provided the PA police and security forces with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of training and equipment in recent years. According to the New York Times (July 1, 2003), the Bush administration is planning to provide an additional $300-million in CIA assistance to the PA police and security forces in the near future.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “In view of the widespread and continuing involvement of PA police and security forces in terrorism, we call on the Bush administration to immediately suspend all CIA assistance and other forms of U.S. aid that are being provided to the PA police and security forces. For the U.S. to continue providing such aid under these circumstances is, in effect, to provide aid to terrorists.”

He noted that a recent national McLaughlin poll found that by 73%-15%, the American public opposes all U.S. aid to the Palestinian Arabs. The American people understand that the Palestinian Authority is a terrorist regime; the McLaughlin poll found that by 67%-19%, Americans say the PA has not fought terrorism and should not be given a sovereign state.

Examples of involvement by the PA police and security forces in terror:

• PA Security Service “is a Terrorist Organization”: The Israeli Army division commander in Gaza, Brig.-Gen. Israel Ziv, said on Nov. 18, 2002: “The Palestinian Preventive Security Services (PSS) in the Gaza Strip, headed by Rashid Abu Shubak and Samir Mashrahawai, has changed over the past two years from an organization whose purpose it was to thwart terror, into one that blatantly supports and assists it. The PSS has itself become a terrorist organization, generating, initiating, backing and giving protection to a great number of terrorists and a long line of terror attacks…”
  
  
  
• State Dept. Admits PA Police Involved in Terror: The State Department’s November 2002 report on PLO/PA compliance with the Oslo accords acknowledged (p.4) that “members of PA security forces were frequently involved in acts of violence against Israelis” during 2002-2003.
  
  
  
  
  
• PA Police Station Used to Shield Terrorist: On October 26, 2003, the Israeli Army dismantled a PA police station in Gaza that was “used as a refuge by an Islamic Jihad terrorist,” according to the IDF spokesman, who added: “It should be noted that the terrorist was offered sanctuary by Palestinian police officers—who also helped him escape. Such action illustrates the blatant involvement of the Palestinian security apparatuses in aiding terrorism.”
  
  
  
  
  
• PA Police Took Party in Lynching: PA police officers played a central role in the kidnap-murder-lynching of two Israelis in Ramallah on October 12, 2000. PA police officers Osama Salim, Tarek Tabash, and Mahmoud Jamil Sheikh seized the Israelis at gunpoint and took them to the PA police station in Ramallah. PA policeman Nidal Asheikh violently assaulted one of the victims on the way to the station. They were placed in the custody of the station commander, Halil Hassan and then beaten, tortured and lynched by a mob that included Sheikh and other police officers. (Jerusalem Post, Aug.27, 2003)
  
  
  
  
  
• PA Police Chief is a Fugitive from Justice: PA police chief Ghazi Jabali has been the subject of an Israeli arrest warrant since 1997, when he sent three PA policemen to murder Israelis in the town of Har Bracha.
  
  
  
  
  
• PA Police Helped Al Qaeda Terrorist: When Israeli forces in Gaza attempted to apprehend Nadim Abu-Okel, a Palestinian Arab terrorist associated with Al Qaeda, “Palestinian police tried to prevent the Israelis from taking Abu-Okel into custody, and started struggling with them. Some policemen stoned the Israeli security forces,” the Jerusalem Post reported.(June 2, 2000)
  
  
  
  
  
• PA Police Involved in Terror Since 1996: In February 2003, the Israeli government released captured PA documents which proved that the PA security forces have been involved in terror against Israel since at least 1996. The documents revealed:
  
  
  

  …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.