NEW YORK – While Western media reports are claiming that the Palestinian Authority has stopped inciting against Israel, the PA-controlled media and senior PA officials are still praising terrorists as “heroes” and urging the destruction of Israel, the Zionist Organization of America points out.

Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, notes that “in the weeks since Yasir Arafat’s death, there has been a significant increase in the incitement to hatred of Jews and Israel in the Palestinian Authority’s media.”

* PLO Official Says “Two State Solution” is Temporary: Fatah chairman and PLO “foreign minister” Farouk Kaddoumi, interviewed on Iran’s Al-Aram television on November 29, 2004, was asked “What is the future of Palestine?” He replied: “At this stage there will be two states. Many years from now there will be only one.” The PLO’s official Strategy of Phases, adopted in 1974 and never rescinded, calls for establishing a PLO state in Judea-Samaria- Gaza as the first phase, followed eventually by the next phase, destroying Israel.

* PA Schools Teach Children That Israel Should Be Destroyed: In a statement issued on December 8, 2004, the leftwing Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information, headed by Dr. Gershon Baskin, said: “Text books issued by governments are an authoritative source to determine the values that any society lives by. Until now, the Palestinian Authority text books have not provided evidence that the Palestinian Authority has been implementing a policy of peace making … [T]he main political theme imparted to the students is that Israel should not exist and that is essentially the Palestinian goal. Assuming that this is not the political message that the Palestinian Authority adheres to, there is a need to make real revisions and amendments in Palestinian textbooks.”

* PA Official Defends Murdering Israelis in Territories and Jerusalem: PA National Security Adviser Jibril Rajoub told the Israeli Arab newspaper Kul al-Arab that the PA is negotiating with Hamas, but “We didn’t ask for a hudna or a cease-fire,” and if an agreement is reached, “then the ‘resistance’ should be restricted to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.” (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 11, 2004)

* No Order to End Incitement: “Radwan Abu Ayyash, the head of Palestinian Broadcasting, which is part of the Palestinian Authority, said he had not received any instructions to alter the tone of broadcasts.” (New York Times, Dec. 15, 2004)

* PA Television and Radio Call Terrorists “Heroic Martyrs”: After two Palestinian Arab suicide bombers murdered five Israelis in Gaza on December 13, 2004, PA Television and PA Radio praised the bombers as “heroic martyrs.” (Translation courtesy of IMRA)

* PA Television Compares Israel to a Parasite: In early December, PA Television aired an interview with an Arab professor who “likened Israel to a parasite that kills a snail and goes and lives in its shell.” (Translation courtesy of IMRA)

* PA Television Encourages “Return” to Pre-1967 Israel: In early December, PA Television showed “an hourlong program about refugees, replete with children singing and dancing about not forgetting their homes in Haifa, Acre and Jaffa [cities within pre-1967 Israel]. The children, who were shown holding keys in their hands, sang, ‘You cannot stop us, we will return.'” (Translation courtesy of PMW)

* Abbas Urges Bringing Millions of Arab “Refugees” to Israel: In an interview with the Beirut Daily Star (Dec. 9, 2004), Abbas said “that all Palestinian refugees must have the right to return to the Occupied Palestinian Territories in line with UN Resolution 194.” (Abbas, speaking in Arabic, actually said “return to Palestine” but the Daily Star translated it as “Occupied Palestinian Territories.”) He said that this “is not an issue for debate” and “is a common goal” of all Palestinian Arab factions. [Translation courtesy of IMRA.] Speaking to the Palestinian Authority parliament on November 23, 2004, Abbas said: “We promise you [Arafat] that our heart will not rest until we achieve the right of return for our people and end the tragic refugee issue.” (see www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/505214.html)

Fatah chairman and PLO “foreign minister” Farouk Kaddoumi told the Saudi newspaper Okaz on December 13, 2004 that “the right of the Palestinian Diaspora to return to their homes is a legitimate and inalienable right.” (SANA-Syrian News Agency, Dec.13, 2004)

Fatah Central Committee Sakher Habash explained the meaning of the “right of return,” in a statement on the official Fatah web site on Aug.12, 1998 (see www.fateh.org/e_public/refugees.htm – courtesy of IMRA): “To us, the refugees issue is the winning card which means the end of the Israeli state. They have, therefore, refused to solve it this way. Meanwhile, we should not seek negotiable solutions … I visualize the future in establishing a democratic state by peaceful means. This will come true when the Zionist illusion comes to an end, the thing that has begun to occur in the Labor Party and Meretz…”