Yasser Arafat quotes:

We plan to eliminate the state of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian state. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem.

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.

I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.

The victory march will continue until the Palestinian flag flies in Jerusalem and in all of Palestine.

[Alexander Haig and Ariel Sharon ] casualties in this war were more than in all the previous Arab - Israeli confrontations. If you remember, it is the only war [in 1982] which hasn't a hero among the Israeli generals.

Palestine is the cement that holds the Arab world together, or it is the explosive that blows it apart.

Whoever thinks of stopping the uprising before it achieves its goals, I will give him ten bullets in the chest.

Jordan recognizes that east Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian state and Jordan rejects foreign sovereignty -- Israeli sovereignty -- over the holy sites

This is my homeland no one can kick me out.

Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations.

The Palestinian Rifle is ready and we will aim it if they try to prevent us from praying in Jerusalem.

[Adolf] Hitler succeeded once upon a time to conquer all the big powers within two or three years and occupied all Europe, North Africa, and arrived at the gates of Moscow. This is not the real power. Real power is something completely different.

I send my condolences, and the condolences of the Palestinian people to American President Bush and his government and to the American people for this terrible act....We completely condemn this serious operation.... We were completely shocked.... It's unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable.

The Palestinian people have no national identity. I, Yasser Arafat, man of destiny, will give them that identity through conflict with Israel.

Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.

We completely condemn this very dangerous attack, and I convey my condolences to the American people, to the American president and to the American administration, not only in my name, but on behalf of the Palestinian people.

In order to obtain the goal of returning to Palestine, all of us sometimes have to grit our teeth.

Anyone who relinquishes a single inch of Jerusalem is neither an Arab nor a Muslim.

It's always convenient for certain people to heap accusations on Israel.

I am convinced that our people are now on the way to establishing a Palestinian state. The agreement signed in Cairo is the first step in establishing the state, and therefore it should be implemented.

Our basic aim is to liberate the land from the Mediterranean Seas to the Jordan River. We are not concerned with what took place in June 1967 or in eliminating the consequences of the June war. The Palestinian revolution's basic concern is the uprooting of the Zionist entity from our land and liberating it.

Whoever stands by a just cause cannot possibly be called a terrorist.

We will not bend or fail until the blood of every last Jew from the youngest child to the oldest elder is spilt to redeem our land!

The war of attrition against the Zionist enemy will never cease.

Peace cannot be achieved except after the cessation of military escalation and the economic and financial siege.

We shall never stop until we can go back home and Israel is destroyed... The goal of our struggle is the end of Israel, and there can be no compromises or mediations... the goal of this violence is the elimination of Zionism from Palestine in all its political, economic and military aspects... We don't want peace, we want victory. Peace for us means Israel's destruction and nothing else.

The Israelis are mistaken if they think we do not have an alternative to negotiations. By Allah I swear they are wrong. The Palestinian people are prepared to sacrifice the last boy and the last girl so that the Palestinian flag will be flown over the walls, the churches and the mosques of Jerusalem.

Let us be worthy of those who pin their hopes on us. May God bless you with success.

All religious wars are about people arguing over who has the biggest invisible friend.

All our moves are based on four general principles: continued use of the rifle, no waiving of historical rights, no peace, and no negotiations... Whatever form of government is established in the territory when the shadow of occupation passes away, whenever I address my fighters and revolutionaries, I shall say: 'Let our rifles be aimed at the beloved land, the land of the homeland, the land of Palestine

Choose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you.

Did you follow what [General Yehoshafat] Harkabi wrote? Formerly of the Israeli military intelligence service. Remember him? Did you follow what he wrote? He said that it was for the sake of the existence of Israel that we have to accept the rights of the Palestinians to have their independent state.

Even if only one guerilla cub survives the prolonged struggle, I am confident that he will raise the flag of Palestine overJerusalem... Jerusalem is destined to be the eternal capital of our sovereign, independent Palestinian state under the P.L.O. leadership.

Find what strength you have to terrorize your enemy and the enemy of God.

I am challenging Ezer Weizman to accept the democratic state where both of us can live in this democratic state. What confederation? No. One democratic state. He declared one offer, I am declaring the other offer. With two communities.

I am looking to have a place under the sun for our new generations to live in peace far away from repression, from terrorism, to live as human beings freely in this free world. That is what I am looking for. I am not asking for the moon. I am asking for the United Nations legality to be implemented.

I am not Mr. Chairman. I am His Excellency, the President of Palestine.

I am not receiving orders from Ariel Sharon.

I can't let it pass when you say: "You are the weak party." No, I am not the weak party. I am the man who is making the war. I am the man who is making the peace.

I had support - I had started it, not to forget.

I have a solution. I agree for the United Nations forces to be on the borders between me and them for any period of time. Okay? Ezer Weizman challenged me a few days ago to accept an Israeli - Palestinian confederation.

I know the American administration is trying to refurbish its image after Irangate, especially in the Middle East and among their friends in this area. No doubt about it. We are following it.

I swear to God, I will see [the Palestinian state], whether as a martyr or alive. Please, God, give me the honor of becoming a martyr in the fight for Jerusalem.

I want to tell Carter and Begin that when the Arabs set off their volcano there will be only Arabs in this part of the world... Our people will continue to fuel the torch of the revolution with rivers of blood until the whole of the occupied homeland is liberated, the whole of the homeland is liberated, not just a part of it.

If there is any Arab problem we can solve it inside the Arab League. But we are going to deal with the other side, with the Israelis.... It is not me who will decide who will invite, to speak frankly. It is not me, it is not the Arab side, it is not the Israelis who will decide who will invite.

I'm a man of history. My vision is guiding me, my clear vision. It is not by chance that the currents of peace are increasing daily inside Israel.

In 1982, when Alexander Haig and [Ariel] Sharon put this plan to invade the south of Lebanon and Beirut, they imagined that in two or three or five days, they can demolish the PLO and destroy its infrastructure. What happened? The longest Arab - Israeli confrontation.

In order to obtain the goal of returning to Palestine, all of us sometimes have to grit our teeth. But it is forbidden that this harm the continued struggle against the Zionist enemy. Cooperation and understanding between the P.L.O. and the rejectionist organizations is what will lead to the speedy retreat of Israel from the occupied territories in the first stage, until the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem. Only a state like that can then continue the struggle to remove the enemy from all Palestinian lands.

Israel must withdraw from Jerusalem so that it becomes the capital of a state of Palestine.

It is another face in the new atmosphere of many leaders inside Israel. No doubt it is something new. Actually, Ezer Weizman is a Palestinian. He was born in Haifa.

It is true that we are under occupation, but we are not the weaker party. We are the military force which Israel failed to defeat.

It will be another disaster, after Irangate. Not only that, not only this longest Arab - Israeli confrontation: but also the most important and successful war of attrition which still continues in the south of Lebanon.

Jerusalem is the capital of the Palestinian state.

Let us return back to the peace process for our children and for their children. The peace of the brave which I have signed is my debt, part in our love for [Isaac] Rabin.

Many of the Israelis begin to understand and discover the realities and the facts. They can't demolish five million Palestinians. They can't annihilate them.

Martyrs, martyrs, martyrs,... we want a million martyrs to march on Jerusalem.

Not to forget, you are speaking with General Yasser Arafat. It's true that I am an engineer. But also I am a general. And I am religious. I believe that no one can approach me except God.

Now you are trying to recover it through Irangate. I know that. But it will cost you a lot. And if you are speaking about the charters again, you have to remember that the Israelis should recognize first the resolutions of the United Nations, according to [one of] which they became a state. Israel is the only state which was created by one of the United Nations resolutions.

Once in 1979, [Zbigniew] Brzezinski gave an important slogan: "Bye-bye PLO." After two months, I was in Tehran saying to him: "Bye-bye Brzezinski." Who can imagine that America will lose one of its strongest bases?

Palestine is only a stones throw away for a small Palestinian boy or girl.

Peace for us means the destruction of Israel.

Since we cannot defeat Israel in war, we do this in stages. We take any and every territory that we can of Palestine, and establish a sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel.

Still, the American administration is following blindly the Israeli advisers in your policy, while they are pushing you to more and more disasters.

The Amman Agreement failed because there was American pressure, and Israeli pressure, on Jordan to deal alone.

The goal of our struggle is the end of Israel, and there can be no compromise.

The most fatal mistake of this Israeli military junta is that they have the complex of the arrogance of power. This is their suicidal mistake.

The obstacle is the USA administration. I know there is a strong Israeli lobby in America, no doubt of it.

The Palestinian state is within our grasp. Soon the Palestinian flag will fly on the walls, the minarets and the cathedrals of Jerusalem.

This child, who is grasping the stone, facing the tank, is it not the greatest message to the world when that hero becomes a martyr? We are proud of them.

We are a democratic - we are living in democracy.

We are not the Red Indians.

We do not want to destroy any people. It is precisely because we have been advocating coexistence that we have shed so much blood.

We have absolute support from all our masses inside our occupied territories and even outside our occupied territories. The "War of the Camps" [in Lebanon] is another picture of this strong support of our masses.

We said we are ready to establish our independent state in any part from which the Israelis withdraw or which is liberated. Any part. The moment they withdraw from Gaza, I will establish my state there in Gaza.

We will make the lives of the infidels hell - millions of martyrs marching on Jerusalem.

What do you think this very difficult situation will push? Especially in the hearts of those who are facing the starvation, facing the unemployment, facing this siege, facing the tragedy of their families - the poverty of their families. Some of them, they didn't find food to eat. What do you expect from them? In spite of death, our people are still patient. But patience has limits.

What Kuwait did to the Palestinian people is worse than what has been done by Israel to Palestinians in the occupied territories.

When American administration will find that their interest is to follow up with the international conference and to find peace in this area, they will search not only for me, but for any Palestinian to speak with him. And they will say, "We have five million Arabs in the United States. We can't avoid them."

When I made a big effort in '96 and it is not - I squeezed and I arrested a part of [terroristic groups].

Where is [Ariel] Sharon who, planning to be one of the big heroes of Israel, became one of the killers, criminals, killing our small kids in Sabra and Chatila. Where is Alexander Haig?

Who imagined that what I said upon my departure from Beirut would become a reality, when I said the volcano and typhoon which started in Beirut will not stop.

With hearts that believe in Allah's will and predetermination, we have received the news about the martyrdom of the martyr. . . . Al-Hotary, the son of Palestine, whose noble soul ascended to . . . in order to rest in Allah's Kingdom, together with the Prophets, the men of virtue, and the martyrs. The heroic martyrdom operation . . . who turned his body into bombs . . . the model of manhood and sacrifice for the sake of Allah and the homeland.

You are the generation that will reach the sea and hoist the flag of Palestine over Tel Aviv.

The Palestinian people have no national identity.