36 Americans Murdered
by Palestinian Arabs Since ‘93
NEW YORK – The Zionist Organization of America strongly supports the call by U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) for the Bush administration to demand that the Palestinian Authority surrender Hamas terrorist leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin and other Palestinian Arab killers of Americans so they can be brought to trial in the United States.
Hamas has claimed responsibility for the recent massacre of five Americans at Hebrew University, as well as other murders of American citizens in Israel.
Senator Schumer “called for Israel to extradite Hamas’ spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin and others to stand trial in the U.S. for the American deaths. ‘I think they had every reason to know that they would kill Americans. This is an attack on Americans, not simply an attack on Israelis,’ Schumer said.” (New York Daily News, August 2, 2002)
Although the United States does not have a formal extradition treaty with the Palestinian Authority, the U.S. has in the past pressured countries with which it has no extradition treaty to voluntarily surrender fugitive criminals. In addition, the U.S. frequently asks even countries with which it has such treaties to hand over fugitives outside the normal extradition channels, to avoid lengthy and complicated extradite proceedings. This method is used so frequently with Mexico that law enforcement officials refer to it as “extradition, Mexican-style.”
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “We strongly support Senator Schumer’s call to bring Palestinian Arab killers of Americans to the U.S. for prosecution and punishment. On the rare occasions that the PA has staged sham five-minute trials for terrorists, it has set them free within weeks. Those who murder Americans must face American justice.”
* 36 American citizens have been murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists since the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993, 24 of them since the Palestinian Authority launched the current wave of violence in September 2000. In addition, 68 Americans have been wounded since 1993, 43 of them since September 2000
* A total of at least 103 Americans have been murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists, and 119 wounded, since 1968.