A cabinet contract
The Israeli cabinet's decision to "remove" Arafat, Nobel Peace Prize winner and the elected leader of the Palestinian people, has been described as a Mafia-style action. Yet Arab reaction remains muted, reports Sherine Bahaa
"Is this a free hunting season or what?" asked a Syrian university student upon hearing of Israel's decision last Thursday to "remove" Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The government of Ariel Sharon adopted the decision during a security cabinet meeting in reaction to the two latest Palestinian suicide bombings that killed more than 20 Israelis. The cabinet declared Arafat "a complete obstacle to peace", adding that the government "will work to remove this obstacle in the manner, at the time, and in the ways that will be decided on separately".
"The language [of the decision] is horrific. They reduced him [Arafat] to an abstraction. There is no human aspect or representational aspect in the language used," Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi told Al- Ahram Weekly. Although Ashrawi thinks it is unlikely that Israel would carry out its decision, she was quick to add: "Certainly I put nothing beyond them."
"The Israelis are impulsive but they are not lunatics. This decision is total lunacy," said Imad Shoeibi, a political science professor at Damascus University, in a telephone interview with the Weekly.
The Arab League held an emergency meeting on Monday and passed a resolution expressing support for Arafat and blaming Israel for causing the collapse of the nearly three-month old hudna. Amr Moussa, the league's secretary-general, declared that if Israel carried out its decision to expel Arafat, Arab countries would have to reconsider their relations with Israel. "That would be imperative," he said. But at the official level, Arab governments confined their reaction to the usual verbose condemnations, expressions of regret and calls for international intervention to safeguard the targeted leader. An Arab proposal to get the UN Security Council to adopt a draft resolution prohibiting any Israeli action against Arafat was promptly vetoed by the United States.
The reaction of the Arab public was also muted. Those who expected fervent protests on the streets of Arab capitals were sorely disappointed. Demonstrations were confined to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan. "It seems as though the Arabs have accepted the fact that they are weak," said Shoeibi.
Abdel-Wahab Badrakhan, political analyst and columnist with The London-based Arabic newspaper Al- Hayat, told the Weekly that the Arabs have grown bored with conventional reactions, especially because they are fully aware that there is an absence of a joint Arab position. "They have tried demonstrations, but those ended with nothing more than confrontations with their own police. The demonstrations failed to achieve any sort of pressure on the regimes, so what's the use of this kind of action?" he asked.
Ashrawi, however, finds the submissive and defeated tone used in describing the Arab reaction unacceptable. "The Arabs have cards to play, but the question is: is there a will to do something?" she asked. "Self- confidence and strategic perception are key words for any effective Arab role," she added. Ashrawi believes that the Arabs must press the US to launch a viable peace process, introduce peace-keeping forces in the occupied territories and implement the vision of a two- state solution.
Israel's decision to "remove" Arafat follows repeated Israeli threats to get rid of the Palestinian leader, but such threats were in the past rejected by the cabinet. Last week's decision was adopted, using highly abusive language, and this against an elected president. "This is not politics. Convening a government in order to decide to 'remove' a person who is their main partner is a Mafia-style action," said Badrakhan. "Such a decision practically rules out the possibility of dealing with the other. No matter how far people agree or disagree with Arafat, he remains a national symbol for the Palestinians. Arafat has always proved to be the type of leader who manages to shine most when under fire from Israel."
Earlier this week, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert went so far as to suggest that Israel kill Arafat rather than remove him.
It was a decade ago this month that Arafat, now blamed for destroying the peace process, shook hands with then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn in the presence of then US President Bill Clinton during the signing of the Oslo Accords. One year later, Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize, jointly with Rabin, for his role in bringing a peaceful end to the decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Ironically, the decision to "remove" the Nobel Peace Laureate came from a prime minister who had been himself tried in a number of cases as a war criminal.
"This is a deliberate Israeli policy to continue dismantling anything related to the Declaration of Principles. Rather than re-deploy, the Israelis have carried further incursions. They have reoccupied the Palestinian territories and refused to recognise the leadership. Now they are attempting to remove that same leadership," concluded Ashrawi.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 18 - 24 September 2003 (Issue No. 656)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/656/re2.htm