December 16, 2004
Contact: (212) 481-1500

Attn: NEWS EDITOR

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY MEDIA & OFFICIALS STILL PRAISING
TERRORISTS AS HEROES AND URGING ISRAEL'S DESTRUCTION

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Phases, adopted in 1974 and never rescinded, calls for establishing a PLO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..."

* * *
The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest
pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen
U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the
dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on
college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice
Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.