"The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies - civilians and military - is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aksa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim."
- The fatwa (religious edict) issued by Osama bin Laden in 1998
"We decided to liberate our homeland step by step... this is the strategy... we say: 'should Israel continue - no problem. And so we honor the peace treaties and non-violence, so long as the agreements are fulfilled step-by-step. [But] if and when Israel says 'enough,' namely, 'we will not discuss Jerusalem, we will not return refugees, we will not dismantle settlements, we will not withdraw to the borders,' in that case it is saying that we will return to violence. But this time it will be with 30,000 armed Palestinian soldiers and in a land with elements of freedom. I am the first to call for it. If we reach a dead end we will go back to our war and struggle like we did forty years ago."
- PA Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Sha'ath,
interview with ANN television (London), October 7, 2000
"Violence is around the corner, and the Palestinians are willing to sacrifice even 5,000 casualties."
- PA Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein,
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, (PA) August 24, 2000
"The Intifada will continue until the achievement of our national goals."
- PA Finance Minister Muhammad Al-Nashashibi,
Al-Ayyam, October 10, 2000
"The Intifada is a means of popular struggle in which all parts of the people take part in order to realize the internationally recognized legitimate rights of the Palestinian people... This is the goal of the Intifada... The use of violence, the struggle and martyrdom... used by people to achieve their rights."
- PLO representative in Washington, Hassan Abd Al-Rahman,
TV MBC, October 10, 2000
"The Intifada should be continued and escalated."
- The head of the Fatah organization in the West Bank, Marwan Al-Barghuthi,
Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar), October 11, 2000
"The Palestinian people are in a state of emergency against the failure of the Camp David summit. If the situation explodes, the Palestinian people living in the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority are ready for the next fierce battle against the Israeli occupation. ... The next Intifada will be more violent than the first one especially since the Palestinian people now possess weapons allowing them to defend themselves in a confrontation with the Israeli army. ... the Lebanese experience of wiping out the Israeli occupation from southern Lebanon gave the Palestinian people the needed moral strength and added to their spirit of armed struggle."
- A "senior security figure" in the Palestinian Authority,
Kul Al-Arab, July 14, 2000
"The issues of Jerusalem, the refugees and sovereignty are one and will be finalized on the ground and not in negotiations. At this point it is important to prepare Palestinian society for the challenge of the next step because we will inevitably find ourselves in a violent confrontation with Israel in order to create new facts on the ground. ... I believe that the situation in the future will be more violent than the Intifada."
- Abu-Ali Mustafa of the Palestinian Authority, July 23, 2000
"Hamas has tens of martyrs who are willing to carry out attacks against Israeli targets. An operation of such martyrs exceeds that of the Arab armies who fought the Hebrew state. The importance of the weapons of such martyrs is no less than the importance of nuclear weapons."
- Khaled Mash'al, head of the Hamas Politbureau,
Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), June 24, 2001
"We are teaching the children that suicide bombs make Israeli people frightened and we are allowed to do it....We teach them that after a person becomes a suicide bomber he reaches the highest level of paradise."
- Palestinian "Paradise Camp" counselor speaking to BBC interviewer,
quoted in Jerusalem Post, July 20, 2001
"I promise that the number of shootings at the occupation will increase to 500 to 1,000 shooting [incidents] per day....The Palestinians have trained themselves to attack the Israeli tanks and explode their bodies that will be loaded with a belt of explosives, as part of the preparations for a possible Israeli attack in the Palestinian territories....The current intifada differs from the previous one because it is armed and the Palestinians are fighting inside their territory and from it."
- Deputy Commander of Force-17, Muhammad Dhamrah (a.k.a., Abu Awdh),
Al-Hayat, August 17, 2001
"The suicide bombers of today are the noble successors of their noble predecessors...the Lebanese suicide bombers, who taught the U.S. Marines a tough lesson in [Lebanon]....These suicide bombers are the salt of the earth, the engines of history....They are the most honorable [people] among us....."
- Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (PA), June 24, 2001
"I do not think that a Muslim would let an Islamic homeland like Palestine, and Jerusalem, remain in the hands of the Zionists, who plunder it and damage its holy sites, without the owners of the land having the right to defend themselves. All I said is that this oppressed people that was expelled from its home has the right to become a human bomb and blow himself up inside this military society."
- Sheikh Yussef Al-Qaradhawi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood,
Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar), September 16, 2001
"Our efforts to continue the Intifada and resistance will persist until we achieve our right of return, and our independence, with Jerusalem as the capital."
- Ahmad Sa'adat speaking at a press conference after becoming leader of the PFLP,
Jerusalem Post, October 4, 2001
"Resistance is legitimate and those who give up their lives do not require permission from anyone....We must not stand in the way of the intifada and jihad [holy war]. Rather, we must stand at their side and encourage them."
- Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Akrameh Sabri,
Al-Hayat, December 7, 2001
"With God's help, next time we will meet in Jerusalem, because we are fighting to bring victory to our prophets, every baby, every kid, every man, every woman and every old person and all the young people, we will all sacrifice ourselves for our holy places and we will strengthen our hold of them and we are willing to give 70 of our martyrs for every one of theirs in this campaign, because this is our holy land. We will continue to fight for this blessed land and I call on you to stand strong.."
- Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat,
speech at a rally in Ramallah, December 18, 2001
"O God, destroy the tyrant Jews. O God, deal with the Jews and their supporters. O God destroy them for they are within your power."
- Saudi Sheikh Usamah bin-Abdallah Khayyat
sermon from the Holy Mosque in Mecca broadcast on Saudi government television, July 12, 2002
"We have examined our options and our path, and we have chosen the path of slaughter, by acts of Jihad, Istshahad (suicide) and resistance of every form, side-by-side with our brothers in the Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and all the other Palestinian resistance groups, until the liberation of Palestine and the return of the refugees."
- Part of a warning posted on the web site of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades,
the military arm of Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization, August 7, 2002
"If they go from Sheba'a, we will not stop fighting them. Our goal is to liberate the 1948 borders of Palestine...[Jews] can go back to Germany or wherever they came from."
- Hezbollah spokesperson Hassan Ezzedin
New Yorker, October 14, 2002
"If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."
- Hezbollah leader Sheikh Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
Lebanon Daily Star, October 23, 2002
"The Jewish-Crusader coalition will not be safe anywhere from the fighters' attacks. We will hit the most vital centers and we will strike against its strategic operations with all possible peaces."
- Attributed on Al-Jazeera TV to al-Qaida spokesman SuleimanAbu Gheith
December 8, 2002
"The jihad and suicide bombings will continue - the Zionist entity will reach its end in the first quarter of the current century. It is therefore up to you [Muslim holy fighters] to be patient - the Hamas takes upon itself the liberation of all Palestinian land from the sea to the river in the Rafah [in the south] and until Rosh Hanikra [in the north]."
- Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin
Al-Ayyam, December 28, 2002
"Find what strength you have to terrorize your enemy and the enemy of God."
- Speech by Yasser Arafat
VOA , May 15, 2004
"There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world....Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation's fury (while) any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world....As the Imam [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini] said, Israel must be wiped off the map."
- Speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
AP , October 26, 2005
"We affirm our support and backing for the positions of the Iranian president toward the Zionist state which, by God's will, will cease to exist."
- Leaflet distributed by Aksa Martyrs Brigades
supporting Ahmadinejad's call to wipe Israel off the map
November 6, 2005
Myths & Facts Online
Arab/Muslim Attitudes Toward Israel
By Mitchell G. Bard
