New York – Leading, second-generation figures in Fatah, whose president is Mahmoud Abbas, and who today hold high office in the PA, have recently made statements supporting continued terrorism against Israel and the country’s destruction. Statements by these senior Fatah figures demonstrate this extremist anti-Israel, pro-terror outlook:

• Jibril Rajoub, PA National Security Advisor: “The West Bank is still occupied and resistance [i.e., terrorist activities] is a legitimate right” (Interview on Al-Arabiya TV talk show, November 4, 2005).
  
• Muhammad Dahlan, PA Minister of Civil Affairs: Calls for national unity “to complete what was achieved in the Gaza Strip. To liberate Jerusalem and the West Bank and for the refugees to take by force the right to return to their houses” (Palestinian News Agency, November 6, 2005).
  
• Muhammad Hijazi (Abu Khaled) senior Fatah operative in the northern Gaza Strip: Important to continue “the path of jihad and [active] resistance until all Palestinian land has been liberated”; Fatah weapons are legitimate and Fatah and others have “the right to respond to the occupation’s crimes” (Al-Bayan, UAE, November 7, 2005).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “These statements clearly show that not only is Fatah an organization that seeks Israel’s destruction and carries out terrorism, but that its second generation of leaders are cut from the same cloth as Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. They reject Israel’s right to exist, they demand the so-called ‘right of return’ for Palestinian refuges and their descendants, which would spell Israel’s destruction, they support terrorism and they oppose disarming terrorists. Operationally and in outlook, there is no difference between them and Mahmoud Abbas.

“As the ZOA noted recently, two of Israel’s most senior military figures, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and former Israel Defense Forces Chief-of-Staff, Moshe Ya’alon, publicly stated that Mahmoud Abbas is not a peace-maker. On the strength of these statements, the second generation of Fatah leaders is no better.

“Because Fatah remains a terrorist organization committed to Israel’s elimination, it is vital that the U.S. and Israel insist on the disarming of all terrorist groups, including Fatah, and that it abrogate its terrorist charter, explicitly renounce terror, and publicly accept Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Anything short of this will only ensure that the Palestinian Arab terrorist war against Israel will continue.”