[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 52 (Wednesday, May 1, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3627-S3628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire:
  S. 2432. A bill to prohibit the use of fiscal year 2003 Federal funds 
for support of the Palestinian Authority pending the cessation of 
terrorist activities by the Palestinian Authority; to the Committee on 
Foreign Relations.
  Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire. Madam President, I rise today to offer a 
long-overdue bill for the purpose of defunding terrorism by Yasser 
Arafat and his supporters, by shutting off their flow of dollars from 
the U.S. Treasury.
  It was the belief of the previous administration that Yasser Arafat 
and his Palestine Liberation Organization would live up to their 
renunciation of terrorism, and the newly-formed Palestinian Authority 
headed by Arafat and his PLO cronies could operate as a responsible 
governing body to further peace.
  Instead, Arafat, the PLO and the PA have used the guise of their new-
found political legitimacy, and agreement to the Tenet peace plan, to 
mask their real desires.
  The reality of the situation is that the Palestinian Authority is 
joined at the hip with the PLO and other terrorist groups, such as 
Tanzim, the armed wing of Fatah, the largest faction of the PLO.
  Tanzim is headed by a member of the PA's legislature, and is believed 
to have developed an alliance with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic 
Jihad.
  Our aid frees up other money the PA uses to pay for the bombs that 
are killing innocent men, women and children in Israel.
  The chart was compiled by my staff from a published list of each such 
attack last year. That list is 25 pages long.
  We dare not forget the level of terror visited upon Israel by 
Palestinian terrorists. The terror attacks in Israel in the year 2001 
alone, from the first one on New Year's day, to the last one on 
December 12 are sobering: 79 separate incidents; 1220 injured; an 
additional 160 killed.
  It has been reported that on March 2, 1973, Yasser Arafat ordered the 
execution of Cleo Noel, the American Ambassador to the Sudan. Arafat 
and his supporters have since been tied to countless acts of terror and 
murder. Therefore, it is beyond belief that our country to this day 
provides the Palestinian Authority and related entities more than $75 
million dollars every year.

[[Page S3628]]

  There have been foreign intelligence reports that Arafat has perhaps 
$10 billion stowed away, a small fortune. He doesn't ``need'' U.S. 
humanitarian aid.
  It is flat out wrong to ask American taxpayers to support and 
subsidize the PA when Yasser Arafat and the PLO have made no attempt to 
use the resources at their disposal to provide the most basic of 
humanitarian aid and services to their people. The interest alone from 
Arafat's bank account could lift countless Palestinians out of squalid 
conditions.
  Of course the opponents of my bill will argue that this is just 
``humanitarian aid'' for Arafat-friendly NGO's, which begs the reality 
that those dollars free up Arafat's other money for him to then use to 
pay to manufacture bombs.
  We now have the proof, in Arafat's own handwriting, that the 
Palestinian Authority is still paying the terrorist's bills.
  Consider the proof, on the official letterhead of the Presidential 
Bureau of the Palestinian Authority, slash, Palestine Liberation 
Organization, bearing the signature of Yasser Arafat just 8 days after 
our country was attacked on 9-11, ordering $600 be paid from the 
treasury of the Palestinian Authority to each of three terrorists. Two 
of them are senior activists of the Fatah terrorist group, one of 
these, Ziad Da'as, is the head of the group behind a recent deadly 
terrorist attack on a Bat-mitzvah party in Israel. The Israeli Defense 
Ministry says they recently captured this document at Arafat's office 
in Ramallah.
  There is still more proof: an order for Yasser Arafat to the Finance 
Ministry of the Palestinian Authority from January 7 of this year. It 
was faxed from Fatah on January 20. Here, Arafat orders the 
disbursement of $350 to each of the 12 named Fatah activists. According 
to the Israeli Defense Ministry, who captured this document at Arafat's 
headquarters in Ramallah, each of these 12 individuals are known 
terrorists, belonging to Fatah and or Tanzim. Arafat's approval is 
given in response to a request of Ra'ed Karmi, then the head of the 
Fatah and Tanzim terror groups, which perpetrated numerous murderous 
attacks on innocent Israeli civilians since September 2000.
  As recently as April 7 of this year, Tim Russert on ``Meet the 
Press'' asked the Secretary of State to deny that Arafat is funding 
terrorism. Here is what Russert said:

       ``Israel says documents link Arafat and terrorism. They 
     seized documents and made them public, which liked the office 
     of Yasser Arafat with terrorist attacks carried out against 
     Israeli civilians and other targets. One of the documents, 
     said to be an invoice submitted by a leading Palestinian 
     militant group to a Palestinian official.... Among other 
     items, the invoice requested 20,000 Israeli Shekels, ($4,200 
     American), to buy electrical and chemical components for the 
     production of a month's supply of 30 bombs. It's an invoice 
     of terrorism, said Dori Gold, an advisor to Prime Minister 
     Sharon. Mr. Secretary, do you believe the Palestinian 
     Authority harbors or supports terrorism?

  Do you know what our Secretary of State replied?
  Did he deny the authenticity of this document? He did not.
  Did he deny that Arafat paid the bill? He did not.
  Did he deny that our taxpayer dollars are thus funding the killing of 
innocent men, women and children? He did not.
  What he said was, ``It is a complex situation''.
  There's nothing complex about it! Our tax dollars should never be 
used for terrorism. Period. End of discussion!
  I don't care if Arafat has agreed to negotiate.
  I don't care if Arafat has agreed to the Tenet plan.
  I don't care that we need to keep contacts with the Palestinians, we 
can do that anyway without subsidizing, and therefore legitimating, 
their activity.
  We should not be funding terrorism, and that is all there is to it
  The United States should not continue a policy which has utterly 
failed to curb the violence on the part of these radical 
Islamic terrorist groups that Arafat and the PLO have sway over.

  Furthermore, American taxpayers should not be fooled into footing a 
bill for ``humanitarian aid'' when Arafat and his regime have no desire 
in their hearts to co-exist peacefully with the State of Israel.
  When our land was so brutally attacked last fall, the President set a 
new agenda. He said, ``From this day forward, any nation that continues 
to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as 
a hostile regime.''
  Well, my colleagues, that is what Mr. Arafat and his minions are: a 
hostile regime.
  Even Secretary Powell, in that ``Meet the Press'' interview conceded 
as much. He said that the United States has never shrunk from the 
accusation that the Palestinian Authority supports and harbors 
terrorism.
  So why then, why are we taking tens of millions of dollars every year 
out of our taxpayer's pockets and sending it to the P.A. where it can 
be used to free up other money to build bombs that suicidal maniacs 
strap on themselves to blow up a cafe, or a schoolbus?
  The bill I am offering today will put an end to that. I say no more 
money should be sent to anyone that will use it in a way that frees up 
Arafat to pay his bomb-building bills.
  I say no more money that goes to de-stabilizing the powderkeg in the 
Middle East.
  I say no more money for Arafat's new intifada against Israel.
  My colleagues, I strongly urge you to stand with me on the side of 
Israel and against terrorism and to support this bill.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 2432

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. PROHIBITION ON USE OF FISCAL YEAR 2003 FEDERAL 
                   FUNDS FOR SUPPORT OF PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY 
                   PENDING CESSATION OF TERRORIST ACTIVITIES BY 
                   PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY.

       (a) Contingent Prohibition on Availability of Fiscal Year 
     2003 Funds.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no 
     funds available to any department, agency, or other element 
     of the Federal Government for fiscal year 2003 may be 
     obligated or expended for the purpose, or in a manner which 
     would have the effect, of supporting--
       (1) the Palestinian Authority;
       (2) any entity supported by the Palestinian Authority;
       (3) any successor entity to the Palestinian Authority or an 
     entity referred to in paragraph (2); or
       (4) any private, voluntary organization for--
       (A) projects related to the Palestinian Authority; or
       (B) projects located in Palestine that would otherwise be 
     undertaken by the Palestinian Authority or an entity referred 
     to in paragraph (2) or (3).
       (b) Termination of Prohibition.--The prohibition in 
     subsection (a) shall cease to be effective upon the submittal 
     by the President to Congress of a certification that neither 
     the Palestinian Authority, nor any entity supported by the 
     Palestinian Authority, has engaged in planning or carrying 
     out any terrorist act during the six-month period ending on 
     the date of the certification.
       (c) Support.--For purposes of this section, support shall 
     include direct and indirect support, whether such support is 
     financial or otherwise, including support for the Holst Fund 
     of the World Bank and the United Nations Relief and Works 
     Agency.
                                 ______