Palestinians Denounce Call for Attacks on Westerners

Prominent Palestinians on Saturday condemned a senior Iranian official’s call for the killing of five Westerners for every Palestinian slain in the uprising in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Britain and France, meanwhile, joined the United States in condemning Iranian Parliament Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani’s call on Friday to kill American, British and French citizens, hijack planes and blow up factories in retaliation for the killing of Palestinians by the Israeli army.

“I have no idea why the Iranians would suddenly make statements about the Palestinians,” said Sari Nusseibeh, a prominent Palestinian philosophy professor in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. “I believe they should really look into their own business and allow us to look after ourselves.”

Nusseibeh disassociated the Palestinian cause from Rafsanjani’s statements. “They reflect a total alienation from the entire Palestinian situation, not only the Palestinian situation but also the political reality of the world.”

In London, Palestine Liberation Organization official Faisal Aweidah said Westerners aren’t to blame for Israeli actions.

“Every man has the right to say what he wants, but we do not approve of that policy, and we do not think it is conducive to the peace process that is going on around the world despite what Israel is doing.”

In Amman, Jordan, local PLO representative Abderrazak Yahia, who is a member of the organization’s Executive Committee, said: “The Palestinian revolution embodied in the intifada is not based on terrorism but on a nonviolent strategy. . . . Rafsanjani’s statement is a clear expression of a sick, terrorist mind.”