Yasser Arafat's Death and return to Ramallah

Arafat’s Death

On Thursday, November 11, Yasser Arafat, elected president of the Palestinian people died. On November 12 his body was returned from France to be buried in the Muqata compound which had been his headquarters and prison for almost three years.

During the week preceding his death, I had also come to Al Quds (Jerusalem) to finally take some long overdue days off. Also there were three of my colleagues and friends from IWPS, two whom were there to go to other meetings and one who was spending her last day in Al Quds before she left for the United States.

All week prior to his death, we along with the Palestinians, had stayed tuned to the news waiting to hear about Arafat. I had lost count of how many times we heard that he was dead or that his death would be announced in an hour, two hours etc. All week the speculation continued. And as the Israeli and international media tried in an increasingly unbecoming manner to outdo each other to be the first to announce his death, we waited. We waited to see what would happen: how the Palestinians would react, how the Israelis would react, how the world would react.

Everywhere we went people were talking about Arafat. On Tuesday, which also was the 27th day of Ramadan, the most holiest of all Muslim days – the day that the prophet Mohammed had supposedly ascended to heaven to receive the holy Koran and scriptures – the rumour that Arafat was already dead and that his death would be announced from Al Asqa Mosque on this most holiest of nights.

As we returned in the afternoon to the old city via the rampants (the walk along the top of the old city walls) and through the Jewish quarter via the western wall (the wailing wall), we were confronted with hundreds of Israeli police and Israel Occupation Forces (IOF) pouring into the Muslim quarter. When we got back to the hostel, we heard once again that it had been announced on BBC radio that Arafat’s death would be announced in two hours - at 7pm from the Mosque. We waited and 7pm came and went and like all the other rumours and media initiated speculation it turned out not to be true, but still the IOF and police patrolled the streets and roofs of the old city. From the roof of our hostel, where we had gone to see what was going on, we had a not only a stunning view of the old city, but also the disturbing sight of IOF snipers stationed on the roofs through out the quarter.

We awoke the next day to the sounds of the Koran being read from the minarets and we knew Arafat was dead. Kate and I had planned even before Arafat's death to go to Ramallah in the afternoon to visit some friends and to interview some people, but after watching the official announcement on the television, we gathered our overnight bags and headed for Qalandia and Ramallah.

At Qalandia, the main permanent checkpoint entrance into Ramallah, it was quite as it was still Ramadan, but there were more IOF stationed around the checkpoint then normal. Despite this, however, we were able to make our way through the checkpoint without any trouble and were soon in serveece (shared taxi) into the heart of Ramallah.

As we made our way down to the Muqata (Arafat's compound), I rang RC to see whether she was in Ramallah, which she was and we arranged to catch up. When Kate and I arrived at the Muqata, a rally of around 1000 people was taking place and the media was everywhere. The rally, carrying pictures of Arafat and many people wearing the kaffeyah, then marched back to the Menara Circle in the centre of Ramallah.

RC and I stayed in contact through out the day. At one stage she had gone to the Qalandia to meet NH and rang to tell me that the IOF had began firing on the shabab (Palestinian boys) who had been throwing stones. Another friend who was on her way through the checkpoint at the time later told me that because of the international media present, the IOF were forced eventually to back off.

In the evening, I meet up with RC and NH. They were staying with a Palestinian friend of theirs in a Ramallah suburb and I was invited to stay the night, which I did. The next day, we spent the early morning watching the official funeral ceremony in Cairo on television. S, who we were staying with and her friend who came to visit, told us how angry they were at the new Palestinian leadership for not fighting to have the official ceremony in Ramallah and for not fighting for Arafat to be buried in Al Quds. They felt that already the new leadership had begun to sell out the Palestinian people.

As Arafat's body was returned to the helicopter and started to depart for Ramallah, we got ready and made our way down to the Muqata. The scene there was in stark contrast to the day previously. The day of his death had been relatively subdued and I have to admit I was quite thrown by the fact the crowds were so small. Today, however, was a different story. There were tens of thousands of people everywhere, on the walls of the compound, on the roofs of the surrounding buildings, in the trees and any possible vantage point.

Within 5 minutes of being there, we had all become separated from each other. I walked down towards the main entrance of the Muqata. Along the way, I ran into many Palestinians I had met while I have been here, as well as activists from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who traveled from Nablus to get there. One of them told me that they had encountered 10 mobile IOF checkpoints along the way, an incredibly high number.

Despite the crush of the crowd, within 10 minutes I was inside the Muqata. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were inside the compound, many had climbed a top of the devastated and bombed out buildings to gain a better view.

The rubble and dirt mounds resulting from the Israeli military bombardment of the compound now acted as bleachers for thousands of Palestinians, as did the dozens of car wreckages left from the Israeli bombings. Palestinians had climbed a top the devastated buildings and infrastructures in their hundreds. Huge 20 metre posters with Arafat’s image on them hung from buildings, along with giant green, black, white and red Palestinian flags. Smaller versions of Arafat’s image were carried in his honour by thousands of Palestinians in the crowd, along with the familiar and illegal (under Israeli military law) Palestinian flag.

As people waited, chants went up: To Al Quds we shall go! Martyrs in the Millions! With our blood and our soul, we will follow you! Sporadically, the militants in the crowd fired off bullets. The PA security forces repeatedly tried in vain to clear a path for dignitaries to traverse, but the crowds were too big for the cleared paths to last more then 5 or 10 minutes.

At 2.30pm, the cry went up from the crowd and everyone began too look skyward. At first I could not see anything, but soon four small specs appeared on the skyline. Four helicopters, one carrying Arafat's body.

As the helicopters began their flyover of the compound, I unexpectantly began to cry. I felt completely overwhelmed by the moment. Arafat was dead and still the Palestinians did not have a state to call their own.

In the days and weeks preceding his death, I had spoken with many Palestinians about him and how they felt. Like many Palestinians, I too had my criticism of Arafat. I had criticised him for his shortcomings and his failures, as they had. And while there were many who criticised his politics and his failings, they all, however, agreed on one thing: Arafat had been chosen by the people as their elected leader and he was the one Palestinian who had responsible for bringing the cause of the Palestinian people to the international stage and that was his greatest achievement. And for that they were grateful.

As Palestinian American Michael Odetalla said when he wrote of Arafat’s death ( http://www.palestinemonitor.org/new_web/eyeitness_archive.htm ), “Yasser Arafat was by no means a perfect man…[but he made] sure the Palestinian people would not be cast aside and forgotten as the early Zionist founders of the state of Israel had hoped and worked for”.

Arafat, writes Odetalla, made sure that David Ben Gurion’s prediction, “The old will die and the young will forget”, made in reference to the Palestinian people and the catastrophe of being ethnically cleansed from their ancestral homeland, never came true. “Yasser Arafat made sure that the young would never forget” writes Odetalla.

“In a world that would have liked to see the Palestinians "just go away", he made sure that we didn't, that we were and ARE a people, complete with our own history and identity: Palestinian”.

“He forced an uncaring world to see us as a people, not just a collection of rag tag refugees. He instilled in us hope and pride, even in our darkest hours, when the rest of the world could have cared less about our plight, dreams, and aspirations. When the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir arrogantly announced to the world that "there was no such thing as a Palestinian people", Yasser Arafat was there, defiantly proving to her and the rest of the world that we exist!”

Despite whatever failings and shortcomings Arafat had, he was also the one leader that had never deserted them and like the tens of thousands of Palestinians around me, I felt overwhelmed by the sadness and loss that they felt.

As the helicopters landed, in one voice the Palestinian people began to chant, "Yasser, Yasser, Yasser" in honour of their leader. The helicopter carrying his body was soon swamped by Palestinians and it was a half an hour before his body was finally be able to be loaded onto a vehicle to be driven the short distance to the compound buildings.

I was now standing along the side of the route which the casket would traverse and as it came near the crowd surged forward to touch their leader for the last time. Just three feet from where the vehicle past, myself and some of the ISMers were caught in the crush.

As we attempted to get out of the way, I saw RC and we decided to follow the crowd towards where Arafat had been taken. We were standing talking when unexpectantly, the vehicle with Arafat's body turned around and made it way back past us. This time I could literally have reach out and touch the casket but we were more intent on trying to stay up right and not fall and be crushed or trampled by the surging crowd. At one stage, I could not move as the crowd stomped on my foot and crushed us as they tried to either reach the casket or get out of the way of the vehicle. It was only due to the fact that myself, RC and some of the activists from the ISM stayed closely together, trying to support each other to ensure we did not fall under the crowd, that we stayed upright.

As the crowd eventually began to disperse an hour or so later, I was finally able to find Kate and our other friends who she had also come down to the Muqata with. We had originally hoped to meet up earlier in the morning but due to the crowd size this was impossible. At the end of the day, we slowly regrouped made our way back to the house of a Palestinian friend, where we dinner before returning to Al Quds (we later heard that the IOF/Israeli Police had clashed with hundreds on the Temple Mount at the Dome of the Rock – primarily because the Israeli security forces had taken the stupid decision to not allow any men under 45 years of age to enter the city to pray. According to one report, there were 5000 police deployed to the area).

We sat in S’s house – internationals, Israeli's and Palestinians and we discussed the day and the sadness we all felt, but we also discussed what next: would things be different? would his death be a catalyst? what would happen? what will the Palestinian people do?

We all had our thoughts on it, but none of us had a definitive answer. But what we did know was that the occupation continues and that Israel would continue to act as the oppressor.

What we did know was that more then ever the Palestinian people today need the solidarity of all those, as Che Guevara once said, "who tremble at every injustice".

What we did know was that the struggle for a free Palestine would continue, even without the Palestinian leader they called Abu Ammar and that one day Palestine would really be free.