NEW YORK – Documents captured from Yasir Arafat’s offices have revealed that Arafat himself approved payments to a Palestinian Arab terrorist who massacred six people in Israel last January, including an African-American man. The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is urging the Bush administration to indict Arafat for his role in the murder.

Aaron Alis, a U.S. citizen who was the son of African-American tourists who have resided in Israel for some years, was one of six people murdered in the attack on a bat mitzvah celebration in the Israeli town of Hadera on January 17, 2002. He was a professional singer who was performing at the celebration. Arafat’s Fatah movement publicly claimed responsibility for the attack.

The New York Times reported on May 5, 2002 that among the documents captured recently by Israeli forces in Arafat’s offices is “a September 2001 Palestinian Authority document that Israeli analysts say carries Mr. Arafat’s approval of payments of $600 each to three men, one of whom had led a Jan. 17 attack on a bat mitzvah party in Hadera that left 6 dead and 50 wounded.”

Twenty-nine American citizens have been murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists since the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993, 17 of them since Arafat launched the current wave of violence in September 2000. In addition, 68 Americans have been wounded since 1993, 43 of them since September 2000; and at least 96 Americans have been murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists, and 119 wounded, since 1968.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “Members of both the American Jewish community and the African-American community have been murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists. We call on African-American leaders to join us in urging the Bush administration to indict Arafat for financing the terrorist who murdered Aaron Alis.”