Documents confiscated in Arafat's Ramallah Compound (the Muka'ata) and, earlier, at Orient House indicate Palestinian leader's detailed involvement in terror attacks against Israel.

Yassir Arafat has consistently denied any involvement or knowledge of Palestinian suicide attacks, insisting that terrorist groups operate beyond his control.

Documents seized by the Israeli Army during a raid at the Ramallah compound of Yassir Arafat, on March 29, 2002, shed light on the direct role the Palestinian leader has taken in the financing and implementation of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. They testify to the Palestinian leader's first-hand knowledge of requests from leaders of terrorist cells and personal authorization of funding allocations to Tanzim and Fatah operatives for weapons and explosives.

Israeli intelligence officials said that the documents, which were signed in Arafat's own hand, provide the most compelling evidence so far of the direct role he has played in orchestrating the 18-month campaign of Palestinian terror attacks against Israeli civilians.

Sample Documents

• One document, addressed to "the fighting president, Brother Abu-Amar" (Abu Amar is Arafat's nom de guerre) and signed by Hussein al Sheikh, the senior Fatah activist in the West Bank, requested $2,500 for three Palestinian militia leaders, including a Fatah commander, Ziad Muhammed Daas. Daas was identified as the mastermind of the suicide shooting attack during a Bat Mitzvah ceremony in Hadera on January 17, which killed six people and injured 35.
  The letter also requested funds for Ra'ad el Karmi, the former commander of the Tanzim in Tulkarm, who is responsible for the murder of four Israelis.
  On the side of the document is a handwritten note in Arafat's writing, dated September 19, 2001, authorizing payments of $600 to each of the three men.
• A second document was a fax sent to Marwan Barghouti, the head of Fatah, requesting "Urgent Financial Aid" for 12 individuals, all identified by the Israeli government as active terrorists who had been involved in deadly attacks against civilians. Barghouti forwarded the document to Arafat with a request for $1,000 "for each of the fighter brethren."
  Arafat signed and dated the document on January 7, 2002 and allocated $350 to each fighter.
• In a document describing the general situation among armed Fatah personnel in the district of Tulkarm, there is a list of Fatah arms bearers who are divided into two squads: Those willing to "operate" inside Area "A" (Palestine Authority controlled areas) and those whose activities are carried outside of Area "A"(within the Green Line of the State of Israel).
  The activities are described as following:
  "The squad that is not willing to operate outside of Area A numbers only ten. Their activity comprises firing from inside Area A at the DCO, firing at areas where the occupation forces are concentrated and firing during rallies and national celebrations"(of the Palestinians in the Tulkarm area).
  "The active part whose activity is carried out outside of Area A: These operate on bypass roads and even in the depth of Israel, as happened recently in Hadera" (note: a lethal attack on 17 January 2002, perpetrated by a terrorist with an explosives belt and a rifle at Bat-Mitzva party in Hadera - 6 civilians were killed and 25 were injured in the attack).
  In referring to the Ziad Da'as squad, who have carried out numerous terrorist attacks against civilians within the Green Line, it states:
  "This squad carried out high quality successful attacks. The last attack in this framework was the coordination and planning of the operation in Hadera to avenge the death of martyr Ra'ad Karmi".
  "Its men are very close to us (i.e. to the Palestine Authority's General Intelligence) and maintain with us continuous coordination and contact."
• Michael Widlanski, the Arabic speaking journalist with the "medialine.org". who heads the investigating group, cites a one-page document, dated July 9, 2001, containing Arafat's handwritten confirmation of payment requests for $300 to Atef Abayat, who headed Tanzim gunmen, at a time when Israel had requested Arafat arrest Abayat as a killer.
  Arafat's distinctive cross-style signature is on the mid-lower left portion of the payment request filed by Kamil Hmeid, the Bethlehem chief of the Fatah, whose signature appears below that of Arafat.
• Another document, dated Nov. 7, 2001, indicates Arafat's approval for paying the families of "brother commander martyrs" killed fighting Israel. Topping the list is Atef Abayat. At that point, Arafat had claimed to have already arrested the notorious Bethlehem region hit man.

Chilling Costs

In a financial report from the Al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigades to Fuad Shoubaki, the person who served as the liaison between Arafat and the Iranians for the Carine-A, appear complete details on the cost of each deadly weapon aimed at murdering innocent civilians in cold blood. An explosive belt, for instance, costs 700.00 NIS [sic - in shekels!] (=about $140-150).
The financial reports states that,
"We need 5-9 charges each week for the groups in the various areas".

The document contains the "bloody" accounting in the handwriting of Arafat's treasurer - the man who paid for the attempt to smuggle Katyushas and rockets, and who, today, sits with Arafat in Ramallah and enjoys his personal protection.
This is a bill for the price of Jewish lives at Yasser Arafat's organized bureaucracy of murder.

The Documents' Significance

Other incriminating documents involving Arafat's terrorist activities were disclosed at a press conference held Thursday April 11th, by Public Security Minister Uzi Landau, who presented some 100,000 documents and disks discovered at Orient House, the unofficial PLO headquarters in Jerusalem that were closed by Israeli administrative order last August.

What these documents show is that:

1. Yassir Arafat and his organization, the PLO, have been actively involved in terror against Israelis since 1998 - more than two years before the current war of attrition.
   * A June 24, 1998 document, more than two years before the outbreak of the current intifada, summarizes a meeting of four PLO factions - Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the People's Party - at Orient House. It includes a report on terror acts carried out in Jerusalem, along with a budget request to cover necessary operational costs.
2. Furthermore, the Palestinian leader was personally involved throughout, in budget requests and operational reports related to the current, planned violence.
   "These documents, many of them signed by Arafat, are more than a smoking gun," said Minister Landau. "They are a smoking pen - a pen dripping blood - held by Arafat."
   Landau said the Palestinian leader "cannot deny these documents show that he and his top aides planned and financed acts of terror."
3. The documents are particularly significant because they indicate that while Arafat is now denouncing terror attacks on Israeli civilians, for years he has been funding and supporting militants he was supposed to be arresting.
   "One of the most telling revelations of the documents is that the broadly accepted view that Arafat leaves the details to others is completely incorrect," Widlanski said, noting that, "the documents repeatedly show that Arafat is in day-to-day control of the details of all his organizations, relaying the information for comment to the senior members of his military branches."
4. Coming on the heels of a New York Times investigative report linking Arafat to Iran and indicating how the Tehran government is providing the Palestinians with heavy arms and millions of dollars, this information broadens and deepens the evidence that Arafat's strategy is to talk peace to the West, while making war on Israel with the help of a wide network of Arab militant states and organizations.

Points to Ponder

• What is the essence of the information presented here and were you aware of it?
• What does it say about the PA and its leadership?
  [See also The Test of Leadership for previous references and implications for democracy http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/actual/conflict/oct2000.html ]
• How can Israel's future security be assured?
• If this was the Palestinian path before the Intifada, is there hope for change?