Communicated by the Israel Government Press Office Jerusalem, 20 November 1997 Recent Palestinian statements of support for Iraq "The aggression against Iraq is aggression against Palestine... anyone who does not say "no" now to the US is the enemy of Palestine..." --- article in the official Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, November 12, 1997 "The Fatah central committee condemns the American escalation against Iraq and the disregard for the suffering of the Iraqi people for years... the movement called upon all the official and popular Arab forces to unite in order to face the challenge confronting the entire Arab nation...The US began escalating tensions through the Americans in the international inspection teams according to Washington's instructions..." --- statement issued by Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO on November 11, 1997, (Voice of Palestine, November 11, 1997; Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, November 12, 1997) "History will not remember what is known as the United States, but it remembers Iraq, the cradle of civilization, and Palestine, the cradle of religions. History remembers every piece of Arab land, because it is the bosom of human civilization. On the other hand, the murderers of humanity, the creators of the barbaric culture and the blood- suckers of nations, are doomed to death and destined to shrink to a microscopic size, like Micronesia." --- Hafez al-Barghuti, editor of the Palestinian Authority official newspaper, Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, in an article on November 15, 1997 entitled "America's Arrogance" "The enemies of Islam are doing everything they can to humiliate the Arabs and Muslims, and it is within this framework that one must view the current attempt to humiliate Iraq." --- Yusuf Salameh, Palestinian Authority Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs, in a Friday prayer sermon at a mosque in Gaza, (Palestinian Television, November 14, 1997) The Palestinians "reject American and Western threats to carry out a military aggression against Iraq." --- statement issued by the Political Committee of the Palestinian Authority's Legislative Council on November 10, 1997, (The Washington Post, November 11, 1997) "Oh Saddam, my dear, drop your bombs on Tel Aviv". --- chant by Palestinian demonstrators in Ramallah during a rally of support for Iraq (Reuters, November 10, 1997) "At a meeting in Tulkarem, PLO factions called upon the Arab states and peoples to stand by Iraq's side... They also called upon the Palestinian people to undertake public activities which would emphasize the bonds of solidarity with Iraq." --- report in the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam on November 9, 1997.