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Thursday, October 24, 1996
PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE ISSUES LIST OF MAJOR PLO VIOLATIONS

Aaron Lerner 24 October, 1996Aaron Lerner 24 October, 1996

The following material was issued by the Prime Minister's Office:

MAJOR PLO VIOLATIONS OF THE OSLO ACCORDS

The following list delineates 10 of the most egregious PLO
violations of the Oslo Accords. The list is neither comprehensivce
nor exhaustive; rather, its focus is on infractions Israel deems
most serious.

1. OPENING FIRE ON ISRAELI FORCES - In September 1996, Palestinian
policemen opened fire on Israeli soldiers and civilians during the
disturbances in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, resulting in the deaths of
15 Israelis. The Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership actively
instigated the rioting and took no steps to halt the armed attacks
by PA police against Israeli forces. This was the most grievous
violation of the Oslo accords to date by the Palestinians. As Joel
Singer, legal advisor to Prime Ministers Rabin and Peres and one of
the chief architects of the Oslo accords, put it, "The Palestinian
policemen committed a very, very serious violation of one of the
basic principles in the agreement with Israel. Nothing can justify
such behavior." (Near East Report, October 21, 1996). The accords
require that the Palestinian police act to prevent violence and
cooperate with Israeli security forces (see, for example, Annex I,
Article II). The conceptual foundation of the Oslo Accords is the
rejection of violence and force as tools in the conduct of
bilateral relations. By initiating violence against Israelis, the
PA has violated a cornerstone of the agreement.

2. FAILURE TO CONFISCATE ILLEGAL ARMS AND DISARM AND DISBAND
MILITIAS - The PA is obligated to disarm and disband all militias
operating in the autonomous areas and to confiscate all unlicensed
weapons (Article XIV; and Annex I, Articles II (1) and XI).
Nevertheless, five militias - Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, the
DFLP and Fatah - continue to remain armed, and the PA has refused
to disarm them. The PA has failed to undertake a systematic
crackdown on illegal weapons, and has confiscated just a few
hundred of the tens of thousand of weapons circulating in the
autonomous areas. The PA's violation of these provisions of the
accord have allowed terror groups to remain active and well-armed
and to carry out deadly attacks against Israelis.

3. FAILURE TO EXTRADITE SUSPECTED TERRORISTS TO ISRAEL - The PA is
required to turn over for trial all suspects whose extradition is
requested by Israel (Annex IV, Article II(7)), yet they have not
extradited any of the 19 terror suspects whom Israel has sought for
crimes such as murder and attempted murder. By failing to turn
over wanted suspects to Israel, the PA has allowed terrorists to go
unpunished, thereby encouraging others to carry out attacks in the
knowledge that they will not have to answer for their actions.

4. INCITEMENT TO VIOLENCE AGAINST ISRAEL - The PA leadership is
obligated to refrain from incitement to violence, as part of their
commitment to foster mutual understanding and to combat terrorism
(Article XXII). Nonetheless, PA Chairman Yasser Arafat has
repeatedly called for jihad (holy war) against Israel, praised
prominent terrorists such as Yihya Ayyash "the Engineer" and
encouraged acts of violence against Israelis. On October 21, 1996,
Arafat met with a delegation of Hebron Arab notables, and in
response to their complaints about the presence of Jewish settlers
in the city, he rebuked them, saying. "What, have you run out of
stones in Hebron?" (Voice of Israel, October 22, 1996).
Previously , on August 6, 1996, Arafat called Israel a "demon"
and urged Arabs to use "all means" at their disposal to fight
Israel (The New York Times, August 7, 1996). Speaking before
Palestinian forces in Gaza on September 24, 1996, Arafat said,
"They will fight for Allah, and they will kill and be
killed...Palestine is our land and Jerusalem is our capital"
(Maariv, October 4, 1996). Incitement by Arafat and other senior
PA officials encourages violence and undermines attempts to foster
peace and mutual understanding.

5. FAILURE TO CHANGE THE PLO COVENANT - The PLO was obligated to
amend the clauses in the Palestinian National Covenant which called
for the destruction of Israel no later than May 7, 1996 (Article
XXXII(9)). On April 24, 1996, the PLO's Palestinian National
Council (PNC) met and approved such an amendment in principle, yet
"the vote did not actually change the covenant but gave authority
to a PNC legal committee to do so or to draw up a completely new
charter within six months, " (The Jerusalem Post, April 25, 1996).
Six months have passed, and no such changes have been made, nor has
the PLO specified which particular articles will be changed, how
they will be changed or when the changes will go into effect. By
leaving the Covenant intact, the PLO sends a clear message that is
has not renounced violence nor accepted Israel's right to exist.

6. OPENING PA OFFICES IN JERUSALEM - The PA is required to locate
all of its offices and ministries exclusively in areas under its
jurisdiction (Article I(7)). Nevertheless, the PA has violated
this provision by maintaining offices such as the Orient House in
Jerusalem. The PA Ministry of Religious Affairs and the PA Office
of the Mufti are both located in Jerusalem, and several other PA
office operate in other sections of the city. In addition,
Palestinian policemen operate in Jerusalem, in contravention of the
agreements. They have been involved in activities such as
kidnapping, torturing, and killing human-rights activists,
journalists and suspected collaborators with Israel and punishing
perpetrators of "moral crimes."

7. RECRUITING TERRORISTS TO SERVE IN THE PALESTINIAN POLICE - The
PA is required to summit a list of all potential police recruits to
Israel for approval (Annex I, Article IV(4)) to forestall the
possibility that members of terrorist groups will join the PA
security services. The PA has consistently failed to provide
comprehensive listings of potential recruits to Israel and has
proceeded to recruit policemen without prior Israeli consent. In
several instances, the PA has draftd wanted terrorists to serve in
the security forces. Abd al-Majid Doudin, who helped plan the
suicide bombing in Jerusalem on August 21, 1995, was convicted and
sentenced by a PA court to 12 years imprisonment, but was
subsequently freed and hired by the Palestinian police in Jericho.
Similarly, Rajah and Amr Abu-Sita, who murdered Uri Megidish on
March 8, 1993 and whose extradition was requested by Israel, were
drafted to serve in the PA police in Gaza, (Yediot Ahronot, June
24, 1994). Such steps by the PA endanger the prospects for
cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces and
pose a security threat by providing terrorists with access to
weapons and intelligence information.

8. EXCEEDING THE LIMIT ON THE NUMBER OF PALESTINIAN POLICE - Under
the Gaza-Jericho accord of May 1994, the PA was permitted to
deploy a total of 9,000 policemen (Annex I, Article III(3)), but in
actuality the number of Palestinian policemen was nearly 20,000.
Under Oslo 2, the PA my deploy up to 24,000 policemen in Areas A
and B, including Gaza, (Annex I, Article IV(3)), yet they have
exceeded this figure by at least 10,0000. Reports in late
September 1996 suggest that the PA security forces may exceed
50,000 men.

9. ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE RULE OF LAW - The PA is
obligated to conduct its affairs "with due regard to
internationally-accepted norms and principles of human rights and
the rule of law" (Article XIX). As various international human
rights groups, such as Amnesty and Middle East Watch have pointed
out, the PA security forces have systematically utilized arbitrary
arrests, detention and torture. Human rights activists, such as
Bassam Eid, have been abducted by PA security agents, and freedom
of the press has been virtually eliminated, with no criticism of
the regime tolerated in the Palestinian media.

10. CONDUCT OF FOREIGN RELATIONS - The agreements explicitly
forbid the PA from conducting foreign relations, allowing instead
the PLO to conduct relations on the PA's behalf for a limited set
of purposes, such as concluding economic and cultural agreements
(Article IX). Nevertheless, the PA has violated this provision
and engaged repeatedly in diplomacy on the bilateral, multilateral
(i.e. Arab League) and international (i.e. United Nations) levels.

Communicated by the Prime Minister's Office
Jerusalem, 24 October, 1996

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