Arafat: Bin Laden Exploits Palestinians
By JAMIE TARABAY
Associated Press Writer
December 15, 2002, 1:15 PM EST
JERUSALEM -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is demanding that Osama bin Laden stop using the Palestinian struggle for statehood as a reason to conduct terror activities against the West, a London newspaper reported Sunday.
Arafat spoke out against the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States soon after they occurred last year. The Palestinian Authority has consistently rebuffed efforts to link its actions against Israel to the al-Qaida terror campaign.
Arafat's latest statement, his strongest yet, followed twin attacks last month against Israeli targets in Kenya. A Somali-based terror group with links to al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the attacks and dedicated them to the Palestinians.
In an interview with The Sunday Times at his Ramallah headquarters, Arafat accused bin Laden of exploiting Palestinian suffering to garner more support in the Arab world.
"Why is bin Laden talking about Palestine now? Bin Laden never, not ever, stressed this issue, he never helped us, he was working in another completely different area and against our interests," Arafat said, according to the report.
"I'm telling him (bin Laden) directly not to hide behind the Palestinian cause," Arafat said.
A Palestinian official repeated that position on Sunday.
"The Palestinian Authority and other Palestinian groups have all declared that they are fighting the occupation of the land of Palestine and not anywhere else," said Ahmed Abdel Rahman, an aide to Arafat.
The Israeli government has sought to link its conflict with the Palestinians to the U.S.-led fight against al-Qaida. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, blaming Arafat for more than two years of Mideast violence, has tried to convince the United States that Palestinian terrorism is in the same category as al-Qaida terrorism, but the U.S. government has not gone along.
Recently the Israelis claimed that al-Qaida members had infiltrated into the Gaza Strip, but the Palestinians hotly denied that.
"We are not fighting the entire world, civilization and people," Abdel Rahman said. "We don't want our just cause to be used as a cover by Sharon and his government to continue their escalation -- as though if the U.S. is fighting al-Qaida in Afghanistan, so Israel is fighting al-Qaida in Palestine."
Ten Kenyans and three Israelis were killed in the Nov. 28 suicide bombing at a hotel frequented by Israeli tourists, and two missiles narrowly missed a Tel Aviv-bound Israeli airliner that had just taken off from Mombasa with 271 people on board.
A statement on an al-Qaida Web site said the attacks were a Ramadan greeting to the Palestinian people, referring to the Muslim holy month. U.S. officials said the claim of responsibility was credible.
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