NEW YORK – The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is launching a campaign against the Bush administration’s reported plan to give $70-million to Yasir Arafat’s security forces, which have been involved in the murders of numerous Israelis—as well as a number of American citizens.

Middle East Newsline reports (May 16, 2002) that the Bush administration has proposed to provide $70-million to “reform” the Palestinian Authority security forces by “merging the PA’s 12 security forces into one agency.” The money “will also finance procurement of security systems and training.”

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said:

“This is a moral outrage. President Bush is not fighting Arafat’s terror machine—he’s financing it, and that undermines his own efforts to combat international terrorism. “In the days to come, ZOA officials will be meeting with leading Members of Congress to explain that merging the PA security forces’ various branches will not prevent them from continuing to engage in terrorism—if anything, such a merger will merely make the PA security force a more efficient terrorist organization. And giving them funds to pay for ‘security systems’ and ‘training’ will only improve their ability to commit murder. American taxpayers’ money should not be used to support forces that murder Israelis and Americans.”

Evidence of the PA Security Forces’ Involvement in Terror:

* The PA’s General Intelligence Chief for Judea-Samaria, Tawfik Tirawi, “assisted in recruiting, arming, and dispatching terrorists to perpetrate attacks in Israel,” according to documents captured recently by Israel and confessions by captured terrorists. “Lists of names of potential suicide bombers that Israel handed over to Tirawi, demanding they be arrested by the PA, were instead used by Tirawi to warn the terrorists to evade arrest.” (Jerusalem Post, April 12, 2002)

* Documents found in April 2002 by Israeli forces in the offices of Jibril Rajoub, chief of the PA’s Office of Preventive Security, showed that Rajoub’s office “was not only failing to prevent murder, but was also helping to supply and disguise the murderers” and were “linked to suicide bombings.” (New York Times, April 15, 2002)

* “Members of Palestinian security organizations arrested during the [April 2002] operation have admitted to being members of terrorist organizations and carrying out attacks against Israelis.” (Jerusalem Post, April 12, 2002)

* The State Department’s own September 2001 report on PA compliance with the Oslo accords acknowledged that “elements within the PLO, specifically Tanzim, Force 17, and members of other security forces, were involved in acts of violence against Israelis.” (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 24, 2001)

* Five members of the PA Preventive Security Service —Bassam Issa, Kamal Khalifa, Yasser Khasin, Nafez Sabih, and Mahmad Sanwar— were involved in the February 25, 1996 Jerusalem bus bombing in which three U.S. citizens (Sara Duker, Matthew Eisenfeld, and Ira Weinstein) were murdered. (Jerusalem Post, July 3, 1998)

* The chief of PA General Intelligence, Amin el-Hindi, was one of the masterminds of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, in which eleven athletes —including David Berger of Ohio— were murdered. (New York Times, Oct. 14, 1993)