THE PALESTINIANS IN THEIR OWN WORDS (Palestinian Quote Sheet #50) 16 October
2000

On 13 October 2000, the official Palestinian Authority television station
broadcast live a Friday sermon in the Zayed bin Sultan Aal Nahyan mosque in
Gaza. Below are excerpts from the sermon, as transcribed by the Middle East
Media Research Institute (MEMRI), .

The speaker is Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya, Member of the Palestinian
Authority-appointed "Fatwa Council" and former acting Rector of the Islamic
University in Gaza.

On killing Jews and Americans:

"O brother believers, the criminals, the terrorists - are the Jews, who have
butchered our children, orphaned them, widowed our women and desecrated our
holy places and sacred sites. They are the terrorists. They are the ones who
must be butchered and killed, as Allah the Almighty said: 'Fight them: Allah
will torture them at your hands, and will humiliate them and will help you
to overcome them, and will relieve the minds of the believers..."

"Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, in any country. Fight
them, wherever you are. Wherever you meet them, kill them. Wherever you are,
kill those Jews and those Americans who are like them - and those who stand
by them - they are all in one trench, against the Arabs and the Muslims
because they established Israel here, in the beating heart of the Arab
world, in Palestine. They created it to be the outpost of their civilization
and the vanguard of their army, and to be the sword of the West and the
crusaders, hanging over the necks of the monotheists, the Muslims in these
lands. They wanted the Jews to be their spearhead..."

On making peace with Israel:

"Even if an agreement of Gaza is signed - we shall not forget Haifa, and
Acre, and the Galilee, and Jaffa, and the Triangle and the Negev, and the
rest of our cities and villages. It is only a matter of time. The weak will
not remain forever weak, and the strong will not remain forever strong... If
we are weak today... and we are not able to regain our rights, then at least
we have to pass on the banner - waving high - to our children and
grandchildren..."

"...We will not give up a single grain of soil of Palestine, from Haifa, and
Jaffa, and Acre, and Mulabbas [Petah Tikva] and Salamah, and Majdal
[Ashkelon], and all the land, and Gaza, and the West Bank..."

"...Let us put our trust in Allah, close ranks, and unite our words, and the
slogan of us all should be, 'Jihad! Jihad! For the sake of Palestine, and
for the sake of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa!'"

On divine rewards for warfare:

"O brothers in belief, the beautiful bride has a costly price and dowry...
Our bride is paradise, O brothers in belief... The cost and the dowry of
this bride, the dowry of this paradise, is that we fight in the path of
Allah, and kill and be killed."

"Allah has purchased from the believers their persons and their property in
return for the promise that they shall have paradise, for they fight in the
cause of Allah, and they slay the enemy and are slain."

This is the fiftieth in a series of quote sheets prepared by IRIS
(Information Regarding Israel's Security)