|
|
|
  |
| Sunday, 31 October 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Arafat... The 45-year struggle Deemed as a undisputed champion of the Palestinian struggle, President Yasser Arafat has proven to be a man of unique mettle after more than 45 years of determination to end the Israeli occupation of his people's lands. The 75-year-old leader is said to be very ill and doctors decided to transfer him to hospital in Paris on Thursday, October 28, or Friday, October 29, after his health abruptly deteriorated. The symbol of Palestinians' yearning for independence since he founded the Fatah party 45 years ago, Arafat is now the leader of the Palestinian Authority. The 1993 Oslo accords on limited Palestinian autonomy which led Arafat to recognise Israel's right to exist were not welcomed by all Arab states, but the veteran leader managed to rebuild his image across the region seven years later, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. In July 2000, he returned from the Camp David negotiations to a hero's welcome in the Arab world after refusing to waive the Palestinian refugees' right of return and sovereignty over the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Al-Quds. Two months later, Palestinians and Arab states closed ranks behind the historical Palestinian leader when the second Intifada against Israeli occupation broke out. Cameras locked on the image of a frail old man cooped up in his bomb-damaged compound in Ramallah defying the formidable fire power of the Israeli war machine boosted Arafat's stock among Arabs and in the rest of the world. "They want to detain me, send me into exile or kill me. But I tell them No. I want to be a martyr, a martyr, a martyr," he said in March 2002, several months after Israel kept him confined to his Ramallah headquarters. His statements proved so popular, as almost all Palestinians dream of an end to Israeli occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state. However, pictures of an old man with a pale complexion and a quivering lip began to replace that of the indefatigable globetrotting diplomatic lobbyist or of the defiant independent leader. In his latest interviews, Arafat tended to dwell on past achievements and made little impact on Arab news dominated by Iraq, AFP reported. Childhood Days Arafat was born in Cairo August 24, 1929, to a Palestinian father working as a textile merchant and a mother from an old Palestinian family in Al-Quds (now occupied Jerusalem), then under the British mandate. As his mother died when he was five, Yasser, as he was called, was sent by his father to Al-Quds, where the seemingly intelligent boy witnessed the 1936 revolution. Arafat has revealed little about his childhood, but one of his earliest memories is of British soldiers breaking into his uncle's house after midnight, beating members of the family and smashing furniture. After eight years in Al-Quds, Arafat's father brought him back to Cairo, where an older sister took care of him and his siblings. Beginning Struggle Arafat began his studies at the University of Fouad 1 (now the Cairo University) where he majored in engineering and spent most of his time as leader of the Palestinian students. He set up the Palestinian graduates society, which attracted the focus of Egyptian media attention as its members joined the army against the Tripartite Aggression of 1956. The defeat of the Arabs and the establishment of the state of Israel left Arafat in such despair and fury over the ensuing Diaspora and a loss of homeland long associated in the Arab and Muslim mind with Al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites. Recovering his spirits and retaining his dream of an independent Palestinian homeland, Arafat found what turned out to be a lifelong journey of independence. In 1958, Arafat travelled to Kuwait to work as an engineer, where he and a close friend named Khalil Al-Qazir (Abu Jihad) established a revolutionary cell called the Palestinian Liberation Movement or Fatah. He published a magazine on the woes of the Palestinian cause, with no more appropriate name than "Our Palestine". He took the magazine as a forum to legitimatise his resistance movement. The efforts proved not futile, and the Fatah established its first office in 1965 where it made its diplomatic activities. But Arafat's name came to the forefront when he led a number of resistance attacks from Jordanian lands after the 1967 Middle East war. One year later, then Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser admitted Arafat as a representative of the Palestinian people. Alliance The Palestinian leader had given a historic speech before the United Nations in 1974. The Fatah merged into the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which was established in 1964, allowing Arafat to be the chairman of the group's executive committee in 1969. One year later, Palestinian resistance fighters clashed with the Jordanian army, leaving many victims on both sides in what was called the Black September. With Arab mediation efforts, the Palestinian resistance leaders decided to move positions to Lebanon on a temporary basis. On November 13, 1974, the Palestinian leader had given a historic speech before the United Nations, in which he affirmed that the Palestinian cause is one of the just issues sought by people grappling with colonization, persecution and aggressions. Appealing for support to the Palestinian right of self-determination and return to homeland, Arafat called on the members of the world body to consider the olive branch he said he had come with. In 1978-1982, the Israeli army launched fierce aggressions against the Palestinian resistance bases, leaving some of them destroyed and setting up a "security belt" running for 4-6 kilometers long. In 1982, the Israeli massive aggression on Lebanon took its heavy toll on the Palestinian resistance. Arafat was forced to get out of Lebanon under international protection, setting out for his third station, Tunisia. Despite the far distance between Tunis and the Palestinian territories, the Israeli intelligence managed to assassinate leading figures of the PLO, including Abu Jihad (the latter literary means holy struggle) and Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad). Palestinian State Declared In 1988, the Palestinian Legislative Council decided to establish a Palestinian state with eastern Al-Quds as its capital on historical and geographic rights of Palestine, a step that coincided with forming an interim government in the Algerian capital. The 1980s saw great changes in the PLO's thoughts, where Arafat gave another speech before the U.N. General Assembly in 1988 condemning terrorism in all shapes and making a recognition of Israel. He also declared a Palestinian peace initiative, calling on the Middle East countries, including Israel and the Palestinians, to live in peace. A chorus of recognition of an independent Palestinian state followed suit, and Arafat was entrusted to take over its presidency. Further to push forward the peace process, Arafat declared that he is making secret contacts with Palestinian leaders in this respect. One year later, the Palestinian cause was deeply affected by what was interpreted as Arafat's support of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The highly-touted situation on the Iraqi aggression had grave repercussions for Palestinians working in the Gulf, and consequently for the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation which was breaking out in full swing in 1987. Oslo Agreement Arafat began his struggle for indpendence in 1958 After the end of the gulf War and the Madrid peace conference, Arafat and then Israeli Prime Minister Isaac Rabin signed a peace deal in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, in 1993. The deal brought out a new Palestinian entity called the Palestinian National Authority, with Arafat at its helm, and a recognition of the Israeli state set up on Palestine's historical borders. Triggering a new road to settlement pinning to bilateral talks rather than relevant international resolutions, the deal guaranteed Arafat and Rabin a Nobel peace prize "for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East" in 1994. In the same year, the two men signed the Cairo Declaration allowing self-rule governance in Gaza and Ariha (Jericho). Back to Gaza Some 27 years of exile in Arab countries, Arafat returned to Gaza in 1994 to lead the National Palestinian Authority. One year later, he signed a new agreement allowing the enlargement of self-rule areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the Egyptian border city of Taba. On June 1996, In January 1996, Arafat was elected in a landslide victory for the presidency. Results of the ballots gave the Palestinian leader 88.1 per cent to challenge Samiha Khalil's 9.3 percent, with the remainder of ballots ruled invalid. Despite the intransigence of the then Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the champion of settlement activities on Palestinian areas regardless of the international community's opposition, Arafat signed the Wye River peace agreement in the United States in October 1998. Arafat also met with Prime Minister Ihud Barak, and in attendance of the then U.S. President Bill Clinton, for the second Camp David talks. The talks, on the suspending issues of Al-Quds, settlements and refugees, were a complete failure, nipping the bud in all prospects for a peaceful solution to the protracted crisis. Al-Aqsa Intifada Enflamed by tough living conditions and daily aggressions against the Palestinians, the second Intifada against occupation broke out on September 28, 2000, in the wake of a provocative visit to the mosque by the then opposition leader Ariel Sharon. Barak's attempts to end the Intifada through use of force ended in failure, but with many thousands of Palestinians and Israeli deaths. Arafat was the one to blame by Israel for attacks by resistance factions against Israeli targets. The United States blamed Arafat for resistance attacks against Israel, tightening boycott of the Palestinian leader and enhancing Israeli calls for sending him into exile. Israeli tanks and snipers have confined Arafat to his Ramallah headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah to restrict his influence for three years now. Still, efforts to ostracise the veteran leader remains to be seen with his illness and more expected high popularity among his own people. - IslamOnline.net & News Agencies. ************ Killing Arafat is an option A senior Israeli Minister said on September 14 that Killing Arafat was an option, indicating the government was more likely to further isolate rather than immediately expel the Palestinian leader. "His expulsion is perhaps one of the ways of getting rid of him, but it is also possible to isolate him totally in the Muqataa," said Industry Minister Ehud Olmert, referring to Arafat's battered headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP). "Arafat cannot continue to be a factor in the Middle East scene. His expulsion is an option, his liquidation is another option. It is also possible to confine him to prison-like conditions," Olmert, who is also deputy Prime Minister, told Israeli radio. "In this scenario, he would be cut off from the world. He would be unable to receive anyone and would not be able to communicate by phone." The Israeli security cabinet's decision to agree in principle to 'remove' the veteran leader has provoked widespread international condemnation and anger among Palestinians. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
