The Palestinian mission to Colombia sent out a vicious quote from its late leader, Yasser Arafat, calling for an end to the Jewish state.
The official Palestinian mission to Colombia on Thursday night tweeted the following words in Spanish: “Our goal is the end of Israel, and there can be no compromises or mediations…. We don’t want peace. We want WAR and victory — Yasser Arafat.”
These words were originally uttered in a 1970 Washington Post article, long before Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin signed the Declaration of Principles in 1993, in which the PLO formally recognized Israel’s right to live in peace and security. The fact that they have been recycled 47 years later by diplomats officially representing the Palestinian Authority was not taken lightly.
“We brought the matter of the Palestinian mission’s tweet to the attention of the government in Bogotá,” Israeli ambassador to Colombia Marco Sermoneta told Israel’s Channel 1 station. “Anyone who believes everything the Palestinians say must also believe them when they say this,” he added.
In a Friday interview with Spanish newspaper Diario de las Americas, Sermoneta spoke just as plainly. “For the first time, they spoke the truth, not in Arabic, but in Spanish,” he said. “Such action must be taken seriously.”
In reality, Arafat called for Israel’s destruction many times after signing the supposed peace deal in 1993. For example, in a speech to Arab diplomats in Sweden in 1996, the Jerusalem Post quoted him as saying, “The PLO will now concentrate on splitting Israel psychologically into two camps… We plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a Palestinian state.” And in April, 2002, after six attacks in six days, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN’s Paula Zhan, “I think Yasser Arafat has declared a terror war on Israel. He’s nightly and daily calling for a million [martyrs], a million suicide bombers in Jerusalem.”
The tweet was quickly taken off the mission’s official Twitter account, which has fewer than 600 followers. No explanation or apology followed.
By: Batya Jerenberg, United with Israel
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