Ramallah - April 3, 2002 - The Palestinian Leadership expresses its pride in the steadfastness of our masses in all their cities, camps, and villages in face of the Israeli racist barbaric invasion. The Leadership which is headed by President Yasser Arafat affirms that this invasion, no matter how terrorizing and no matter how murderous it gets, will fail in breaking the will of the Palestinian people in achieving freedom and independence.

The Leadership calls on our masses to organize their ranks in a long-term resistance to this occupation and to mobilize all potentials at all locations and to revitalize all popular and national energies and to unify the ranks of all our institutions and national forces, without exception, to confront this oppressive and criminal war that targets the PNA and the Palestinian civil and security institutions and that aims to reoccupy all Palestinian lands and impose solutions of cantons on our homeland and on our heroic people.

Our great people of Palestine, women, men, children, youths, and old people.. we call on you to defend the homeland and the Palestinian presence and to unify the potentials and ranks in order to protect our achievements and dream in freedom and independence so that our children will not become slaves to the invaders and occupiers.

We affirm to every Palestinian woman and man that the Palestinian Leadership, headed by President Yasser Arafat, the symbol of the Palestinian people and their leaders and the title of their struggle and steadfastness, will not succumb in front of the tanks of invasion and will not accept any solution resulting from this invasion.

The sole solution that we cling to is the solution that gained consensus by the whole world and which was affirmed in the Arab Summit in Beirut; it is the solution that guarantees our people their rights according to the international legitimacy resolutions which guarantee the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, with al-Quds al-Shareef as its capital.

Our people, your steadfastness led to a general and large scale mobilization of the Arab popular movement in defending Palestine and in defending our rights in life and freedom. On your behalf, we call on the Arab popular movement with all its various parties towards more support and solidarity in demanding from the whole world to support the Palestinian right and to condemn the aggression and invasion which is exercised against our people and which is violating the sanctity of our mosques and churches, as what happened in the steadfast city of Bethlehem against the Nativity Church and against Omar Ben Al-Khattab Mosque and in the city of Tulkarem and other cities, villages and camps.

We call on the US Administration to stop offering the cover up for this criminal aggression and these massacres that are committed by the occupation army and to exert pressure on Israel and it can do this and it can stop this crime which will leave deep and destructive scars on the peace process and on the security of the region and on stability in general.

We call on the brotherly Arab countries towards more action and movement to reveal and expose the collaboration with Israel and its aggression and to express total rejection and to move immediately and effectively with all our friends in the world, including the European Union, Russia, Japan, the Non-Aligned countries and the Islamic Group to besiege the criminal conduct of Sharon and deter him towards securing an international resolution for providing the international protection of the Palestinian people which are facing these days a real war of elimination, and towards immediate implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1402 which calls for the withdrawal of the Israeli invading troops from all cities they occupied and to reach a ceasefire and start immediately the implementation of Tenet Plan and Mitchell's Report.

We also extend appreciation to the efforts and Arab positions and all steps and measures that are being exerted to confront the aggression and support the heroic struggle of our steadfast people.

The Palestinian Leadership extends a true and open call to the people of Israel, stressing that the actions of the government of Israel and its army will lead to digging trenches of blood between us and not bridges for the sake of peace.

The people of Israel cannot be a free and secure people if they support the oppression against the Palestinian people and if they support the execution of bloody massacres that happen every hour and every minute against the Palestinian people. We have stood against terrorism and violence in all their forms and we will continue to take this position even at these difficult moments that we are facing, but we affirm that our joint action towards the end of occupation will be the sole means to guarantee your security and freedom.

Arabs and we extended our arms to you through the Arab Peace Initiative that was presented in the Beirut last week, but the government of Sharon extended towards us the arm of killing and destruction.

Sharon is not striking what he calls "terrorism" as he claims, but he wants to strike the PNA and the institutions of the Palestinian society in order to postpone the chances of achieving peace, and he does not care for the high price that we and you will pay just to fulfill his sick dreams of expansion, control and settlements at the expense of our people.

We address these words to the US President and to the people of the United States to call for halting these massacres that are proceeding and that will make both peoples pay a heavy price to serve the goals of extremism and aggression that rule Israel. We also address our words to all free people in the world to work towards halting these racist crimes and this crazy invasion that targets the life and future of every Palestinian wherever they are.

Our great people inside the homeland and abroad, our people everywhere and in all locations; let us rise all together to defend the homeland and to protect our destiny and existence on the ground and on this homeland.

At these moments, we extend greetings and appreciation to the memory of our martyrs and to our injured and to the thousands of detainees who are being imprisoned arbitrarily in the occupation prisons, stressing that the blood that was shed on the lands of fathers and grandfathers will be the lighthouse to all Palestinians who are moving steadily on the path of securing their inalienable and constant right in establishing their independent state with al-Quds al-Shareef as its capital.

In name of God, the Compassionate and Merciful

"We want to reward the weak on earth and make them prophets and make them the inheritors and enable them on earth"

April 3, 2002