Yasser Arafat Quotes

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

Choose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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!

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.

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

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

We are not the Red Indians.

This is my homeland no one can kick me out.

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.

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.

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

Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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."

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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 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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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