Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has criticized Arabs, Muslims, Christians and the world for what he called "their silence on Israeli military actions against the Palestinian people."
In an interview with the Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite TV channel on Sunday, Arafat accused the Israeli government of committing crimes against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which erupted in September 2000.
"I wonder why the world is silent on the Israeli army's serious aggressive military actions against our people in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and the latest incident was the demolition of dozens of homes in southern Gaza," said Arafat.
Following the killings of four Israeli soldiers last week, the Israeli army has demolished dozens of Palestinian homes at the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, and destroyed the runway of the Gaza International Airport.
Arafat said that the Palestinians are committed to the ceasefire, giving an evidence of the drop in Palestinian military attacks against Israel after he made a speech on December 16 calling for an halt to attacks on Israel.
"We have carried out certain measures and declared a status of emergency because all Palestinian factions, including the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Islamic Jihad (Holy War), have to respect the Palestinian leadership's decisions," said Arafat.
He said that he has been promised by the leaders of the radical groups to stop attacks against Israel, adding that "It's the Israelis who always violate the agreements and block their implementation."
"There must be an Islamic, Christian, Arab and international quick movement to stop the Israeli military actions, especially their military rolling operation against the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," said Arafat.
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has suffered a losses of more than 7 billion U.S. dollars since the violence between the two sides erupted in September 2000, he said.
"Israel is still holding 950 million dollars dues of taxes that have to be paid back to the PNA," he said, adding that until now, Israel is refusing to pay the money back."
(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2002)
