Under the terms of the Oslo Accords and the Hebron Protocol, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is obligated to refrain from incitement against Israel and to take measures to prevent others from engaging in it.

In his exchange of letters with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on September 9, 1993, Chairman Yasser Arafat wrote, "the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance, prevent violations and discipline violators."

The Interim Agreement (Oslo 2) of September 28, 1995 (Article XXII) states that Israel and the PA "shall seek to foster mutual understanding and tolerance and shall accordingly abstain from incitement, including hostile pro da, against each other and, without derogating from the principle of freedom of expression, shall take legal measures to prevent such incitement by any organizations, groups or individuals within their jurisdiction."

In the Note for the Record which accompanied the Hebron Protocol of January 15, 1997, the Palestinians reaffirmed their commitment regarding, "Preventing incitement and hostile pro da, as specified in Article XXII of the Interim Agreement."

THE VIOLATIONS

Antisemitism is an integral part of the rhetoric of Palestinian Authority (PA) officials, and they encourage its use in the Palestinian media in violation of the accords. Six recurrent themes are discernible:

1. Classic anti-Semitic stereotypes
2. Comparisons of Israel with Nazis and Fascists
3. Denial of the Holocaust
4. Libelous Accusations
5. Delegitimizing Israel and the Jewish people
6. Equating Zionism with racism

Repeated reference is made by Palestinians to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and Palestinian Authority newspapers publish stories about Jewish "plots" and Jewish "fangs". Jews are often depicted as power-hungry and lusting after money, with occasional references to Shakespeare’s Shylock and the Merchant of Venice as examples of Jewish greed.

In the tradition of the medieval blood libel, Palestinian officials have accused Israel of injecting Palestinians with the AIDS virus, conducting medical experiments on Palestinian prisoners and selling spoiled food to Palestinians.

The Palestinian media and Palestinian officials have engaged in Holocaust denial and accused Jews of inflating the number of victims in order to profit from it. Ironically, even as they deny the Holocaust, the Palestinians regularly equate Israel with the Nazis and Zionism with Nazism.

"There is a need to formulate a clear information plan... In order for us to oppose the Zionist media, which dominates more than half of the media in the world - newspapers, radio and television."
      --- from a program on the official PA television station about the media, December 3, 1997

• "... 'Netanyahu's Plan' completely matches the foundations of the greater Zionist plan which is organized according to specific stages that were determined when the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were composed and when Herzl along with Weizmann traveled around the world in order to determine the appropriate location for the implementation of this conspiracy."
        --- from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, November 30, 1997

• "Egypt declared its absolute refusal to grant a prize to Israel--the convening of the Doha summit--and displayed its indifference to American pressure-tactics employed by the Judaized Congress."
        --- from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda by its editor Hafez al-Barghouti, November 18, 1997

• "...The rumor about the ‘superior Jew’ versus the ‘stupid’ others which are not worthy of anything but of serving as subjects, is spread around the world. The Jews put their best efforts into creating it. Every genius has to be of Jewish descent; if he is not of Jewish descent he is forced to make one up for himself. Additionally, any talented military commander, either his mother is Jewish if his name is reminiscent of anything Jewish, or, if his mother is not Jewish- then he ends up being a Jewish agent. The Jews succeeded, during their history, to turn the massacres they were subjected to into a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ against their adversaries and used the weapon of anti-Semitism in an impressive way... In order to establish their "superiority" they provided proof and claimed that the founder of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud, is a Jew in origin and blood; that the father of the Theory of Relativity, who changed the face of science, Albert Einstein, is a Jew inside and out, and that Isaac Newton, who discovered Gravity, is wholeheartedly a Jew. The best proof of the Jewish political ability is the Communist Karl Marx, who is also a Jew from birth. Regarding the millionaires… from Rothschild through Montefiore to Moskowitz: aren't they sufficient proof of Jewish ‘superiority’?"
        --- from an article entitled "The Legend of Jewish Superiority?!" in the Palestinian daily Al-Quds, November 11, 1997

• "Whoever comes in contact with the banks discovers that they act in Shylock's way.… We do not want Shylock-style banks that empty our pockets, but national banks; we have had enough of the Shylock of the lands and settlements."
        --- from an article entitled "The Banks and Shylock" in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda by the paper’s editor Hafez al-Barghouti, November 5, 1997

• "Israeli society started feeling ashamed of Netanyahu's rise to the highest position of power...when all of his qualities amount to his outdated Talmudic arrogance and his absolute belief that he is the spoiled child of Brooklyn's nymphs."
        --- from a communique issued by Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction of the PLO, quoted in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, November 4, 1997

• "We did not take into account the way of thinking of the other side which is a Jewish mentality based on the love of controlling everything, and which does not easily grants others their rights..."
        --- from an article in the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds (November 1, 1997)

• US Ambassador-Designate to Israel Edward Walker "underwent extensive hearings in the Congress or, that is, in the ‘Council of the Elders of Zion’, in order to win his post."
        --- from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda by its editor Hafez al-Barghouti, October 30, 1997

• "This is a pitiful show that expresses nothing other than the Talmudic quarrel-mongering mentality that rules Netanyahu and the members of his group who govern Tel Aviv......But we know that Netanyahu did not change and will not change because [not even] lipstick could make his blood-sucking lips beautiful...
        --- from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, October 29, 1997

• "…The Jews always set a trap for the community of Muslims… The Koran repeatedly warns against the traps and plots of the "people of the book". They relentlessly scheme in all times and places and this is what they do today and tomorrow against the Muslim camp…"
        --- excerpt from the weekly Friday prayer sermon at Al-Aqsa mosque broadcast on the official PA radio station the Voice of Palestine, October 24, 1997

• "…It is impossible to rely on international or Arab national circles as long as Netanuyahu’s claws of hatred dive into our Palestinian blood in search of oxygen-rich blood cells…our movement found in Netanyahu something it could not ignore which is the dismemberment of the agreement by the fangs of hatred and the chewing of the peace by the teeth of the Talmud… We must recognize that this stubborn enemy, locks itself in the Talmud’s cocoon…"
        --- excerpts from a position paper issued by Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction of the PLO and published in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, October 18, 1997

• "The White House is a hostage of ‘the two prisons’ or the two Houses—the Senate and the House of Representatives, which are more extreme than the ‘elders of Zion.’"
        --- from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda by the paper’s editor Hafez al-Barghouti, October 14, 1997

• "It is important to conduct the conflict according to the foundations which both are leaning on...particularly the Jews...such as the Torah, the Talmud and the Protocols [of the elders of Zion]... All signs unequivocally prove that the conflict between the Jews and the Muslims is an eternal and on-going conflict, even if it stops for short intervals... This conflict resembles the conflict between man and Satan... This is the fate of the Muslim nation, and beyond that the fate of all of the nations of the world, to be tormented by this nation [the Jews]. The fate of the Palestinian people is to struggle against the Jews on behalf of the Arab peoples, the Islamic peoples and the peoples of the entire world."
        --- from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda summarizing the work of a Palestinian researcher, September 1, 1997

• "What ‘Israel’ is trying to do...by way of its control over a number of institutions in the US, such as the Congress and its allies...reveals the nakedness of those people and their blind submission to world Zionism...The peace equation was somewhat violated, since the Zionists were able to demonstrate their power in the US...that is the power which was clearly revealed in the Zionist American Congress which led to the terrorizing of the American president and the administration, through threats of sex and morals scandals which are disseminated by the obedient media in the US..."
        --- Brig. Gen. Khaled Al-Musmar, Deputy Head of the PA’s Indoctrination Directorate, Falastin Al-Yaum, August 21, 1997

• "The portrait of the usurious Jew painted by Shakespeare in his well-known masterpiece, "The Merchant of Venice" did not ignite a Jewish attack accusing him of anti-Semitism, since it fit the general view held by Europeans at that time, when the European continent...vomited the Jews to the periphery... The Israelis wish to contain Christian pilgrims in the year 2000...put them next to the settlers who have their sights set on large financial compensation and immediate profit out of land ownership which has been confiscated by a mayor backed by fanatical religious and nationalistic trends and by a millionaire usurer who comes from across the ocean...At this moment the portrait of the Shakespearean hero reappears...and all signs point to the fact that this merchant of Venice will become a new Dracula."
        --- from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 16, 1997

• "...We exude the scent of jasmine...throughout the world, and they release the darkness and hatred of the mobs with the long beards over the land. We declare life...while they have shut themselves up behind death and have been entrenching themselves in its excavations for the last fifty years, which is also their age, the age of evil..."
        --- from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 11, 1997

• "The [Palestinian] Authority cannot do a thing, except protect its people and itself from an enemy which bares its Jewish fangs from the four corners of the earth...
        --- from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 6, 1997

• "...A doctor currently dealing with the national dialogue says: "...in my experience Israeli blood is AB minus - which takes from everyone and doesn’t give to anyone except those of his own [blood] type - while Palestinian blood is O minus - which gives to everyone and takes only from his own type..." Generosity is an Arab custom and stinginess is a Jewish custom. Therefore, it is only natural that we give and they take. We are killed and they incarcerate! We build and they destroy! We agree and they refuse! We make commitments and they close us off!"
        --- from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 5, 1997

• "The existing State of Israel is not worthy of ruling since they know no religion and no God."
        --- Sheikh Hamid Al-Bitawi, chairman of the Palestine Religious Scholars Association and head of the PA’s Sharia Court of Appeals in Nablus, in an interview with the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, July 27, 1997

• "We believe that the Israelis are not adventuresome because the Jewish brain is cowardly and does not tend toward adventure, but rather exchanges it for plotting... These things have to be said as a description of the situation, and as a description of the baseness of this reactionary and cruel American Jewish world."
        --- from an article in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, July 27, 1997

• "Oh, Allah, destroy America for it is controlled by Zionist Jews...Allah will avenge, in the name of his Prophet, the colonialist settlers who are the descendants of monkeys and pigs...forgive us, oh Muhammad, for the acts of these monkeys and pigs who wished to profane your holiness".
        --- from the weekly Friday prayer sermon by PA Mufti Ikrima Sabri broadcast on the official PA radio station the Voice of Palestine, July 11, 1997.

• "The soldiers of the Talmudic offensive do not hesitate to call openly for revenge against Christianity for having persecuted European Jewry… we know that Jesus was a victim of the roots of Talmudic extremism, which is currently waving a national flag, wearing a helmet of a national army and employing state-run terrorism by means of armed settlers and an army."
        --- Hasan Al-Kashef, Director-General of the PA Information Ministry, quoted in the official PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, July 7, 1997

• "Announcer: The occupation is shooting at children, women and infants… The latest reports reaching us from Hebron prove that the occupation forces have opened fire on children, women and infants…"
  Voice of a Hebron resident: "…our enemies have no mercy and no heart… this shows that they have no conscience. Their hearts are like stone. They are not human beings. One can not compare them to people. They are like animals, they are like animals."
        --- Report from the daily news program on the official PA radio station the Voice of Palestine, June 24, 1997

• "O our beautiful land imprisoned in a cage and surrounded by wolves,
  My shaded garden, the tormentors have destroyed you,
  and the dogs have settled in you, O Jerusalem, O my city,
  With my notebook and pencil and the fire of my rifle I will shatter the cage,
  I will kill the wolves and plant the flag,
  The dogs will not bark in the heroic cities."
        --- poem read on the Voice of Palestine, the official PA radio station, on May 22, 1997 during the morning news program "A New Day" as part of a series of "Songs of the Homeland". The poem was read on the Voice of Palestine during the September 1996 riots.

• "Five Zionist Jews are running the policy of the United States in the Middle East: Madeleine Albright, William Cohen, Dennis Ross, Miller and Martin Indyk. It is not possible that the American nation, which consists of 250 million people, can not find anyone other than five Zionist Jews to conduct the peace process with the Palestinians."
        --- PA Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein (Yediot Aharonot, April 13, 1997)

• "We are fighting and struggling with an enemy who is Shylock. We must know that he is Shylock."
        --- Othman Abu Gharbiya, PA Chairman Yasser Arafat’s Adviser on National Political Guidance, in an interview with the official PA radio station the Voice of Palestine, March 15, 1997