Delegation Member
Endorsed Suicide Bombings
NEW YORK – The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has condemned former U.S. Mideast envoy Dennis Ross for bringing a delegation of representatives of the Fatah terrorist movement to meet with Members of Congress and Bush administration officials and hosting a luncheon for them at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, of which he is director.
Fatah, a terrorist movement established and led by Yasir Arafat, is the largest faction of Arafat’s PLO. Fatah temporarily halted its violence against Israel after the signing of the Oslo accord in 1993, but then resumed its violence in October 2000, launching an all-out terror war against Israel. More than 1,000 Israelis have been murdered, and 6,000 injured, many seriously, in that war, and Fatah has carried out the majority of the attacks.
Many of the Fatah attacks have been carried out by Fatah’s “Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade,” which is on the official U.S. list of terrorist groups. The Israel Defense Forces spokesman has described the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade as “the military wing of the Fatah terrorist movement.” (Dec. 31, 2002) The pro-PA newspaper Jerusalem Times has referred to it as “the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, President Yasser Arafat’s Fateh military wing.” (July 17, 2003) Official PA Radio has called it “the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade which belongs to the Fatah movement.” (Nov.11, 2002).
The three Fatah officials whom Ross brought to Washington last week were Qadura Fares, Ahmed Ghneim, and Hatim Abdel Qader. They came as representatives of Fatah, and have refused to resign from Fatah despite its ongoing terrorism against Israel.
Qader said that part of the purpose of the visit was to inform Americans that “the dismantling of the Palestinian [terrorist] organizations [as required by the Bush Road Map] is irrelevant.” (Al Jazeera, Qatar, Oct.21, 2003) In an interview earlier this year, Qader said: “As for the military factions, these are groups that we will never renounced because they are our weapon. These are the teeth and nails of the national and Islamic movement that aim to resist the occupation.” (Al Quds, May 15, 2003)
Asked if he rejects “the suicide operations in Israel,” Qader replied: “We do not reject the suicide operations, but these actions must be carried out in a way that fits the goals.” (Al Quds, May 15, 2003)
Fares is founder and head of the “Palestinian Prisoners Club,” which supports and glorifies Palestinian Arab terrorists imprisoned in Israel. Fares has said he rejects the recent “Geneva Understandings” document “because it acknowledges that Israel is a Jewish state.” (Al-Hayat, London, Oct.14, 2003)
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “Dennis Ross’s embrace of the Fatah terrorists represents the complete collapse of any pretense that he has any interest in Palestinian Arab compliance with the Oslo agreements that he helped broker. Fatah made a shambles of Ross’s Oslo accords, and to this day continually murders and maims Jews, yet Ross embraces their representatives and declares that they want peace. Moreover, America’s war against terrorism is severely undermined when a former U.S. official praises and embraces representatives of a terrorist organization, and gives credence to them as peace-loving freedom fighters.”