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Palestinian Leadership: We Condemn All
Acts of Terror, Including Acts of State Terrorism
April 13, 2002
On behalf of President Yasser Arafat, the Palestine National Authority issued
the following statement:
President Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian leadership express their
condemnation of all the terrorist activities that target civilians, whether they
are Israeli or Palestinian and whether this terrorism is perpetrated by a state,
group, or individual. This condemnation stems from our fundamental principle,
which rejects resorting to terrorism and violence against civilians as means to
achieving political goals.
Based on these principles - which we have declared since 1988 and upon signing
the Oslo agreement in the White House, which we subsequently repeated a number
of times, including on 16 December 2001, and to which we found no Israeli
response but a systematic escalation of the military aggression, the choking
siege, and occupation of our cities, towns, and refugee camps, as well as the
systematic destruction of our infrastructure - we maintain our strong
condemnation of any attacks that target Israeli civilians, especially the latest
attack in West Jerusalem.
By the same token, we vehemently condemn the massacres that the Israeli
occupation army has been committing in the past fourteen days against the
Palestinian civilians and refugees in Nablus City, the Jenin refugee camp, as
well as the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, and other Palestinian areas.
We call on the international community and the Security Council, as well as Mr.
Colin Powell, who is on an important peace mission, to examine the massacres
that have been committed against our People by the Israeli occupation and as a
direct result of the Israeli government's insistence on repressing our People's
aspirations to freedom and independence through military force.
On behalf of the Palestinian People, we reiterate our commitment to a just peace
between both peoples and countries; the peace that would provide security to the
Israelis and independence and freedom in an independent state to the Palestinian
People. For only peace can achieve security for both peoples, while occupation,
military force, massacres, and terrorist actions against civilians will not
bring peace or security to either people.
We must work together, especially in light of the latest Security Council
resolutions, as well as the statements made by President Bush and the
Quadripartite Committee declaration in Madrid, as well as Mr. Powell's presence
between us, to stop this war. We must endeavor an immediate withdrawal of
Israeli military forces, the commencement of implementing the tenet
understandings and Mitchell recommendations. Moreover, we must work to
immediately begin negotiations, based on the Beirut Arab League Summit
resolutions, which adopted the Saudi peace initiative. Finally, we must work to
protect the Christian and Muslim holy sites with the understanding of the
importance of having an international peacekeeping presence to oversee the
implementation of these goals.
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