Palestinian Authority Involved In Terror Since At Least 1996, Documents Show
News
February 13, 2003


More Evidence That
the PA Can’t Be Reformed


NEW YORK- The Israeli government has released documents recently captured in the offices of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, which prove the PA has been actively involved in sponsoring and promoting terrorism against Israel since at least 1996.


The documents also provide additional evidence that the mass Palestinian Arab violence that began on September 28, 2000 was carefully planned and organized by the PA, and was not a spontaneous response to Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site.


The documents, together with information provided by a captured PA security officer, Yusuf Mukdoud, reveal:


* 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.


A new report by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has found that during the months following President Bush’s major Middle East policy speech, the Palestinian Arabs have not fulfilled any of the conditions that the president set forth before the U.S. will support creation of a Palestinian Arab state. For a free copy of the report, titled Six Months Since the Bush Middle East Speech, please call the ZOA at 212-481-1500.


ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “The latest confirmation that the PA security forces have been involved in terrorism against Israel since at least 1996 —when the PA was claiming that only Hamas and Islamic Jihad were responsible for the terror— demonstrates that the PA cannot be ‘reformed’; it is an evil regime that must be completely dismantled and outlawed. To give the PA a sovereign state would be to create a new terrorist regime—at a time when President Bush has pledged to put an end to terrorist states.”




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