Arafat's comeback
Israel's decision to "remove" Yasser Arafat enrages the Palestinians in ways unseen since the start of the Intifada. Khaled Amayreh reports from Ramallah
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You can't expel a symbol. A woman in Gaza City holds a picture of Yasser Arafat during a 15 September rally supporting the Palestinian leader whose life and right to remain in Palestine have both been threatened in recent Israeli statements
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Calling Arafat an obstacle to peace, the Israeli security cabinet agreed by an overwhelming majority "to remove" him "in a manner that will be determined separately". The vague wording left open options that include confining, deporting, or killing the Palestinian leader. "Killing [him] is definitely one of the options," boasted Ehud Olmert, Israel's deputy prime minister and minister of industry. Displaying still more insolence, Olmert said another option would be to treat Arafat like "a prisoner in a dungeon".
"He would receive his food ration twice a day but would not be able to meet with anyone, convene news conferences, give interviews or speak on a cell phone or telephone."
These and similar words sent shock waves into Palestinian society, prompting thousands to take to the streets this week to voice their anger and indignation. In Ramallah, tens of thousands of Palestinians converged on the Muqata'a, the battered headquarters of the Palestinian leader, to show solidarity with Arafat and to shield him with their own bodies if necessary.
"We sacrifice body and soul for you, Abu Ammar," chanted the huge multitude in unison, calling Arafat by his nom de guerre.
"Don't say Abu Ammar, say Palestine, Palestine, Palestine," replied a beaming Arafat, blowing kisses and flashing the V-for-victory sign. "Abu Ammar is staying, staying, staying."
In Lebanon, thousands of infuriated Palestinian refugees also took to the streets to voice their fury. "Any attempts to get our people to capitulate will fail because, with God's help, we will not kneel down," Arafat told a crowd of more than 20,000 people in south Lebanon's Rashidiya refugee camp via telephone. Likewise, tens of thousands of Palestinians in other parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip marched in the streets, carrying aloft Arafat's portraits and reasserting their loyalty to their leader.
Although some of the marches and rallies were organised by the Fatah Youth Movement loyal to Arafat, most were a spontaneous reaction reflecting the extent to which ordinary Palestinians have been provoked by Israel's decision. "Arafat symbolises Palestine. We will defend him with our bare hands, with the last drop of our blood," shouted a young man from the village of Yatta south of Hebron, who traveled 50 miles to Ramallah to be with Arafat. "Everyone of us, every Palestinian, will become a human bomb if anything happens to Arafat."
This is more than just a defensive reflex expressed by enraged Palestinians. "If Arafat is deported or killed, then no moderate Palestinian will dare walk in the street. We will be all killed," said chief Palestinian negotiator Sa'eb Ureikat. "There would no peace process for many years to come."
The decision by the Sharon government to eliminate Arafat "in one way or the other" actually transcends the person of the Palestinian leader, or even his policies. When Sharon tried to kill Arafat in Beirut during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, he expected that Arafat's elimination would help Israel liquidate the Palestinian cause and perpetuate its occupation of the territories it occupied in 1967. Now, 21 years later, it seems that Sharon is still after the very same goal, notwithstanding the reality of the Palestinian Authority and international, including American, support for establishing a viable Palestinian state.
Some Israeli analysts believe that this is exactly what Sharon is after.
This week, a number of Israeli writers and columnists had very harsh words for the leader. "The people who are deciding Israel's future know that they are not eliminating terrorism but heightening it. They believe that this is the heavy price to which we have to agree in order to destroy the Palestinians' capability to maintain national existence," wrote Ze'ev Sternhell in the independent Ha'aretz newspaper. Sternhell added that Sharon's ultimate aim is to break the Palestinian resistance and effect the ghettoisation of Palestinian population centres. Predictably, the vast bulk of Palestinians are quite aware of Sharon's designs.
They realise that Sharon is not after Arafat as a person but is rather after their enduring determination to earn freedom and liberation after decades of military occupation.
Sharon may well be trying to achieve a certain interim goal, namely introducing a new Palestinian leadership that would succumb to Israeli wishes and accept a Bantustan-like state on 42 per cent of the West Bank. However, the collective Palestinian mood throughout the occupied territories makes it amply clear that Sharon's chances of realising his designs are virtually nil.
