New York – The ZOA has condemned Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) for allowing the Islamist terrorist organization, Hamas, which it is supposed to be disarming, to set up its own television channel within the PA. The channel, called Al-Aqsa, named for the mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, started broadcasting last night via satellite from the Gaza district. Hamas hopes its channel will become as popular as its sister station, Al-Manar, run by the Hezbollah terrorist movement in neighboring Lebanon (Arutz 7, January 9). The PA is obligated by signed agreements and the 2003 Road Map peace plan to dismantle the Palestinian terrorist organizations and to end the incitement to hatred and murder that feeds it, but the PA continues to refuse to do either.

Recent examples of the PA protecting Hamas:

• When called upon by the Quartet — the U.S., E.U, U.N. and Russia — to disarm the Palestinian terrorist groups, Mahmoud Abbas refused, saying, “With regard to the issue of the armed Palestinian groups and our dealings with them, this is an internal affair” (Jerusalem Post, September 22, 2005).
  
• Instead of maintaining law and order in Gaza after Israel’s withdrawal, the PA permitted a rampage through the abandoned Jewish communities. “Hours after the Israelis left the settlement of Neve Dekalim … The Palestinian flag and the flag of … Hamas flew from the roof” (New York Times, September 12, 2005).
  
• Instead of dismantling the terrorist infrastructure, the PA invited Hamas to join the PA government (Jerusalem Post, July 7, 2005).
  
• Instead of arresting and jailing terrorists, the PA invited Hamas leaders abroad to move to the PA and establish themselves in Gaza (Jerusalem Post, June 27, 2005).

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “This is yet another example of Mahmoud Abbas and the PA demonstrating as conclusively as they can that they have no intention of fulfilling their obligations to arrest and jail terrorists, dismantle their infrastructure, collect illegal weaponry and end the incitement to hatred and terrorism that is rampant in the PA media, mosques, schools, text books, atlases and youth camps. It is clear that the possibility of moving towards peace cannot even begin until the PA fulfills these minimum, long-promised obligations. Yet yesterday, the PA permitted Hamas, a terrorist organization that has killed 442 Israelis since the start of the terrorism war in September 2000 and whose Charter calls for the destruction of Israel, the murder of Jews and which cites the anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, to start broadcasting more widely through the PA network widely its toxic hate propaganda and glorification of suicide bombing and ‘martyrdom.’

“This is a blatant example of the PA showing utter contempt for its obligations to end incitement to hatred and murder. The ZOA strongly urges the Bush Administration to apply real pressure on the PA to close Hamas’ radio station and to fight terrorism and incitement that permeates the PA. The U.S. must make it clear that consequences will flow from further PA inaction, including the end of all aid to and negotiations with the PA.”