MEMRI (www.memri.org) recently translated an interview given by Yassir Arafat to Saida Hamad, the Ramallah correspondent for the London Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat. Here are excerpts from that interview: Hamad: "A policy of establishing facts on the ground is being imposed by the Sharon government, in order to change the demographic reality. [This isbeing carried out by] by annexing one plot of land, and another plot of land, with the Palestinians still seeking to implement the international
resolutions."Arafat: "Is this the first time? Didn't they, in the U.N., cancel Resolution 181? When Golda Meir came to the Suez Canal and was asked about the Palestinian people, didn't she reply, 'There is no Palestinian people.' This Palestinian people has been dealing with this since Sykes-Picot, and even before, since the Zionist Congress in Basle, with this [Zionist] program, defending this holy land and the holy sites in it."Hamad: "Sari Nusseibah, in charge of the Jerusalem portfolio, signed a document with Israeli elements from the Left which includes abolishing the Palestinian refugees' right of return to their homes from which they were expelled."Arafat: "No one can abolish the right of return. There is Resolution 194. I told them this officially in the [framework of] the agreements signed between them and us, and also to Sharon and Netanyahu at Wye River."Hamad: "The Palestinian court decided to free Popular Front's Secretary-General Ahmad Sa'dat, and to this day the decision has not been implemented. How long will he remain a prisoner?"Arafat: "Sa'dat and [Fuad] Al-Shobaki are not in prison; they are under American-European auspices in Jericho for a while until the problem is solved."Hamad: "This agreement is a precedent for foreign intervention in aninternal Palestinian matter."Arafat: "Did I hand them over to the Israelis?"Hamad: "Do you think that the two agreements [regarding the Church of the Nativity crisis] were a mistake?"Arafat: "In one of the battles of Al-Mu'ta,(4) [waged] at the beginning of Islam, the first commander, the second commander, and the third commander were martyred. The fourth commander, Khaled Ibn Al-Walid, decided to retreat. When he returned, the people were angry with him. But the Prophet
named him [in praise] 'The Drawn Sword of Allah.' Don't forget that difficult decisions are made in battle, but in the end what is most important is that a boy from among our boys and a girl from among our girls will wave the banner of Palestine over the churches, walls, and towers of Jerusalem. They see this as far, but we see it as coming, and truth is with us... 'They will enter the mosque as they entered it for the first time'(Koran, Al-Israa, 7)."Hamad: "Today, on the pretext of cracks in the Western Wall of the Haram, the Sharon government is trying to intervene in the affairs of the Waqf."Arafat: "This is most dangerous. And it is not the first time. For 34 years they have dug tunnels, the most dangerous of which is the great tunnel. They found not a single stone proving that the Temple of Solomon was there, because historically the Temple was not in Palestine [at all]. They found only remnants of a shrine of the Roman Herod. Now they have prevented the [Ministry of] Religious Endowments from monitoring the renovation of the southern wall of the Haram. But we are following this matter in an international framework, and you will see that the entire world is on our side in this matter..."Hamad: "The Israeli army commanders boasted that they defeated the Palestinians and added that they want the Palestinians to acknowledge [this] defeat."Arafat: "They said after the battle of Uhud (5) that the Prophet was defeated. And what happened? The Al-Hudaybiyya agreement,(6) about which Omar Ibn Al-Khattab said [was] a humiliating agreement."Hamad: "The Palestinian street is insulted when the Authority issues a statement condemning the armed operations. After all, the Palestinians say that this is a natural response to the reality of the occupation in the heart of their country, so why do you condemn the resistance?"Arafat: "Because there is a need to honor the decisions emanating from the Palestinian leadership. I gave you two examples - the Battle of Al-Mu'ta and the Hudaybiyya agreement. No one has the right to violate the decisions of the leadership."Hamad: "But the Palestinians say that it is self-defense."Arafat: "We are the ones who decide, as the leadership. Particularly since I cannot agree, in the capacity of my military and Islamic-religious honor, to kill a woman in the street or in a caf? or [to kill] a civilian or a child or [a student] at university..."Hamad: "Also there were [Palestinian] condemnations when soldiers and settlers were killed."Arafat: "No. Let's be accurate. Don't start in with [pointless] questions and answers because I will outsmart you. I am the one who issues the decisions, together with the leadership, and I am the one who decides who the leadership is. When I was an officer in the Egyptian army, I did not act on my own. I carried out orders. In 1973 when the three of us, the Egyptians, the Syrians, and the Palestinians, took part in the war, the leadership was in the hands of the commander of the Egyptian army. I commanded my area and in every matter acted in coordination with the commander of the three armies who was the Egyptian commander. I will give you another example. In 1981 when the battle in southern Lebanon took place and the international forces came and we agreed on a ceasefire, we stopped [firing]. There is a decision that everyone must honor."Hamad: "What about the dialogue with the Islamic movement, particularly the [Hamas] movement?" Arafat: "The dialogue continues and there are brothers who are following the matter."
resolutions."Arafat: "Is this the first time? Didn't they, in the U.N., cancel Resolution 181? When Golda Meir came to the Suez Canal and was asked about the Palestinian people, didn't she reply, 'There is no Palestinian people.' This Palestinian people has been dealing with this since Sykes-Picot, and even before, since the Zionist Congress in Basle, with this [Zionist] program, defending this holy land and the holy sites in it."Hamad: "Sari Nusseibah, in charge of the Jerusalem portfolio, signed a document with Israeli elements from the Left which includes abolishing the Palestinian refugees' right of return to their homes from which they were expelled."Arafat: "No one can abolish the right of return. There is Resolution 194. I told them this officially in the [framework of] the agreements signed between them and us, and also to Sharon and Netanyahu at Wye River."Hamad: "The Palestinian court decided to free Popular Front's Secretary-General Ahmad Sa'dat, and to this day the decision has not been implemented. How long will he remain a prisoner?"Arafat: "Sa'dat and [Fuad] Al-Shobaki are not in prison; they are under American-European auspices in Jericho for a while until the problem is solved."Hamad: "This agreement is a precedent for foreign intervention in aninternal Palestinian matter."Arafat: "Did I hand them over to the Israelis?"Hamad: "Do you think that the two agreements [regarding the Church of the Nativity crisis] were a mistake?"Arafat: "In one of the battles of Al-Mu'ta,(4) [waged] at the beginning of Islam, the first commander, the second commander, and the third commander were martyred. The fourth commander, Khaled Ibn Al-Walid, decided to retreat. When he returned, the people were angry with him. But the Prophet
named him [in praise] 'The Drawn Sword of Allah.' Don't forget that difficult decisions are made in battle, but in the end what is most important is that a boy from among our boys and a girl from among our girls will wave the banner of Palestine over the churches, walls, and towers of Jerusalem. They see this as far, but we see it as coming, and truth is with us... 'They will enter the mosque as they entered it for the first time'(Koran, Al-Israa, 7)."Hamad: "Today, on the pretext of cracks in the Western Wall of the Haram, the Sharon government is trying to intervene in the affairs of the Waqf."Arafat: "This is most dangerous. And it is not the first time. For 34 years they have dug tunnels, the most dangerous of which is the great tunnel. They found not a single stone proving that the Temple of Solomon was there, because historically the Temple was not in Palestine [at all]. They found only remnants of a shrine of the Roman Herod. Now they have prevented the [Ministry of] Religious Endowments from monitoring the renovation of the southern wall of the Haram. But we are following this matter in an international framework, and you will see that the entire world is on our side in this matter..."Hamad: "The Israeli army commanders boasted that they defeated the Palestinians and added that they want the Palestinians to acknowledge [this] defeat."Arafat: "They said after the battle of Uhud (5) that the Prophet was defeated. And what happened? The Al-Hudaybiyya agreement,(6) about which Omar Ibn Al-Khattab said [was] a humiliating agreement."Hamad: "The Palestinian street is insulted when the Authority issues a statement condemning the armed operations. After all, the Palestinians say that this is a natural response to the reality of the occupation in the heart of their country, so why do you condemn the resistance?"Arafat: "Because there is a need to honor the decisions emanating from the Palestinian leadership. I gave you two examples - the Battle of Al-Mu'ta and the Hudaybiyya agreement. No one has the right to violate the decisions of the leadership."Hamad: "But the Palestinians say that it is self-defense."Arafat: "We are the ones who decide, as the leadership. Particularly since I cannot agree, in the capacity of my military and Islamic-religious honor, to kill a woman in the street or in a caf? or [to kill] a civilian or a child or [a student] at university..."Hamad: "Also there were [Palestinian] condemnations when soldiers and settlers were killed."Arafat: "No. Let's be accurate. Don't start in with [pointless] questions and answers because I will outsmart you. I am the one who issues the decisions, together with the leadership, and I am the one who decides who the leadership is. When I was an officer in the Egyptian army, I did not act on my own. I carried out orders. In 1973 when the three of us, the Egyptians, the Syrians, and the Palestinians, took part in the war, the leadership was in the hands of the commander of the Egyptian army. I commanded my area and in every matter acted in coordination with the commander of the three armies who was the Egyptian commander. I will give you another example. In 1981 when the battle in southern Lebanon took place and the international forces came and we agreed on a ceasefire, we stopped [firing]. There is a decision that everyone must honor."Hamad: "What about the dialogue with the Islamic movement, particularly the [Hamas] movement?" Arafat: "The dialogue continues and there are brothers who are following the matter."