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PLO Officials Claim That Israel Poisons Arab Food

NEW YORK -- A senior PLO's official false claim that Israel is poisoning food that it exports to the Palestinian Arabs "is a bizarre and patently fraudulent attempt to smear Israel's name," said Morton A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).

Abdel Hamid al-Qudsi, Deputy Minister of the PLO's Palestinian Authority Ministry of Supplies, declared: "Israel is distributing food containing material that causes cancer and hormones that harm male virility and other spoiled food products in the Palestinian Authority's territories in order to poison and harm the Palestinian population. We absolutely feel that it is an organized plan and conspiracy which is under the auspices of the Israel Defense Forces this is a planned is a planned and initiated war against the Palestinian people." (Yediot Ahronot, June 25, 1997)

Al-Qudsi's allegation follows a recent statement by Saleh Abdulal, Director of the Inspection department of the PLO's Palestinian Authority Ministry of Supplies, that Israel chewing gums sold in PLO- controlled areas "contain a sexually-stimulating adrenaline substance." Similar allegations were recently made in the Egyptian government-controlled press, in order to demonstrate "that Israel was exporting its depraved moral standards to Egypt to weaken its youth." (Jerusalem Post, May 27, 1997)

Morton A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America, said: "Yasir Arafat has not condemned the latest PLO lie about Israel poisoning Arab food. Arafat seems to have learned well from other dictators, who understand that the bigger the lie, and the more frequently it is repeated, the more people will believe it." The food-poisoning lie is the latest in a long series of anti- Israel fabrications that Arafat and the PLO have circulated, including:

• A Palestinian Arab prisoner who claimed to be a Shin Bet agent was presented at a press conference organized by the PLO police in Gaza on May 4, 1997. The prisoner, Ibrahim Halabi, claimed that the Shin Bet recruited him to carry out two recent attacks on Israeli school buses in Gaza, and gave him the explosives. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman said the allegation was "a fabrication." (New York Times, May 5, 1997)

• Arafat publicly praised Hamas bomb-maker Yiyha Ayyash as "the struggler, the martyr." (New York Times, January 8, 1996)

• "It is not up to Israel to decide or define who is our enemy. Hamas is not the enemy, it is part of the political fabric." (PLO Cabinet Minister Hanan Ashrawi, Jerusalem Post, July 25, 1995)

• "[Hamas's attacks] strengthen the Palestinian position...It would be dangerous to stop these actions, because the accords will crumble if there is nothing to make Israel go forward." (Abbas Zakai, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, Al Hayat, April 17, 1995)

• "The PLO and the [Hamas] opposition complement each other...We regard Hamas and Islamic Jihad as national elements...The main enemy, now and forever, is Israel." (PLO Justice Minister Freih Abu Medein, Al Nahar, April 11, 1995; Al Quds, April 14, 1995)

• We have a brotherly relationship with Hamas." (PLO Cabinet Minister Nabil Sha'ath, Reuters, October 28, 1994)

• "The dialogue with Hamas will not be broken off. Hamas is part of the Palestinian people." (Hisham Abdel-Rizak, Fatah leader in Gaza, UPI, October 28, 1994)

• Arafat praised Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as "my brother Ahmed Yassin the warrior." (New York Times, July 2, 1994)