Arafat… Decades Of Struggle, Crises

By Ahmed Bin Aqlin, IOL Correspondent

RAMALLAH, November 11 (IslamOnline.net) – During more than four decades of struggle and crises, deceased Palestinian President Yasser Arafat proved to be a man of hard mettle and unique defiance in what seems as irreconcilable conflict.

Mohamed Abdel-Raouf Al-Husseini 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 rule.

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.

Arafat began his studies at the University of Fouad 1 (later 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 Yasser Arafat in such despair and fury over the ensuing Diaspora and a loss of homeland long associated in the Arab and Muslim mindset 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 traveled 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”, and he was at pains to legitimatize his resistance movement.

The efforts proved no 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.

Merger

The Fatah merged into the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) which was established in 1964, allowing Arafat to later 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 of 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 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 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

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 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 percent to challenger Samiha Khalil's 9.3 percent, with the remainder of ballots ruled invalid.

Despite the intransigence of 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 following Prime Minister Ihud Barak, and in attendance of 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 a 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 quell the Intifada through use of force failed, but with 1,000 Palestinian victims and 300 Israelis.

Arafat was the one to blame by Israel for attacks by resistance factions against Israeli targets.

The United States was convinced, tipping the balance to boycott of the Palestinian leader and enhancing 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.

But all efforts to ostracize the veteran leader are still to no avail, so far.