In a meeting with Arab diplomats in January 1996:"We the PLO will concentrate all our efforts on splitting Israel psychologically into two camps. Within five years we will have six to seven million Arabs living on the West Bank and in Jerusalem. The PLO plans to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Plastinian State. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion; Jews won't want to live among Arabs."

On a speech to the Palestinian legeslative council:"They are waging open war against the Palestinian people...We must confront them, we must confront them, we must confront them. We must confront them in every sense of the word."

(Palestinian Television, August 9,1997)

In a speech to his Fatah movement in Gaza:"It is important that we organize our homes and our movement so that we can more and more and more endure the coming battle, which we shall initiate.We must say these things because great battles lie before us, and it will be now more difficult than in the past...let us each commit one to another and let us commit ourselves before Allah and the Palestinian people that we shall lead the coming battle as we have led previous battles. An oath is an oath and a promise is a promise.The whole world stands on us, while they are alone. They are afraid, but we are not. We cling to the oath and the promise. The Palestinian people is faithful to its oath, the one which we swore upon the first day when the initial shot was fired and the first of our martyrs fell. I must say these things so that you will know where, how, and in which direction our movement is heading. We are marching together to Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem."

(Palestinian Television, August 5,1997;Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, August 6,1997)

In an interview with a Russian newspaper(Novoya Vreyma, May 25,1997):

Q:Is it possible that the Palestinians will return to the armed struggle?

Arafat:Anything is possible.

Q:Including the armed struggle?

Arafat:It is not possible to foresee what will happen to the entire region, not just in Palestine. The entire region is in danger and on the verge of complete chaos, as a result of violations of the peace agreement by Israel.

Q:In your opinion, is Hamas a terrorist organization?

Arafat:The Hamas movement is one of many patriotic movements.

Q:Even it's military wing?

Arafat:Even its military wing. One should not forget that the movement took an active part in the intifada.

Addressing a crowd in Tulkarem:"I now see the walls of Jerusalem, the mosques of Jerusalem, the churches of Jerusalem. My brothers! With blood and with spirit we will redeem you, Palestine! Yes, with blood and with spirit we will redeem you Palestine!"

(Voice of Palestine, April 28, 1997)

During an October 21,1996 speech at the Dehaishe refugee camp:"We know only one word:jihad,jihad, jihad.When we stopped the intifada, we did not stop the jihad for the establishment of a Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem. And now we are entering the phase of the great jihad prior to the establishment of an independant Palestinian state whose capital is Jerusalem...We are in a conflict with the Zionist movement and the Balfour Decleration and all imperialist activities."

To a delegation of Hebron Arab notables in mid-October 1996 urging the use of violence:"Have you run out of stones in Hebron?Prepare the stones."

At a rally in Gaza in July 1996:"We are commited to all martyrs who dies for the cause of Jerusalem starting wil Yihye Ayyash."(Ayyash, known as "the Engineer" was the mastermind behind a series of Hamas suicide bombing attacks prior to his assasination by the Mossad in January 1996.)

In a November 1995 radio address:"The struggle will continue until ALL of Palestine is liberated."

On death for land dealers:"Our law is a Jordanian law that we inherited, which applies to both the West Bank and Gaza, and sets the death penalty for those who sell land to Israelis. It is our righ to defend our land." (Yediot Achronot, May 21,1997)