Yasser Arafat (1929-2004)

Yasser Arafat (1929-2004)
Rotem and Gal 11.11.2004
Palestinians mourn Arafat but struggle for liberation will continue Many Palestinians will view the death of Yasser Arafat with a mixture of sadness and a wish that the Palestinian Authority he led, had done much more to end the poverty and oppression that blights their lives.
Whatever doubts some Palestinians may have had about his leadership they will see in his death, a snapshot of the brutal oppression and tenuous existence they face on a daily basis. Arafat remained a virtual prisoner in his compound for three years, a situation which undoubtedly contributed to the illnesses from which he died. Yasser Arafat is seen by most Palestinians as a symbol of the longstanding Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation. His past as a guerilla leader since the 1960s as one of the founders of the Fatah organization and the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) gave him a special status among the Palestinian masses. It is hard for many Palestinians to think who could play the same role or have the same authority as Yasser Arafat. But while respect will be shown for the role he played amongst many Palestinians, there will be others who rightly question Arafat's (and the other PLO leaders') tactics and strategy in attempting to win Palestinian national liberation. In the earlier years of Fatah and the PLO this was armed attacks by secretive guerilla groups as opposed to mass action by the working class and peasantry armed for self-defence. Later on Arafat and other leaders attempted to form diplomatic alliances with corrupt Arab regimes and negotiate with imperialist powers. Black September When Arafat was faced with a revolutionary situation, he unfortunately betrayed such movements. September 1970 in Jordan was one such example where large sections of Palestinians and Jordanians rose up against the corrupt regime of King Hussein. Arafat and the PLO leaders could have led a revolutionary struggle for power which would have changed the whole face of the Middle East. Instead Arafat made concessions to King Hussein and tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed in the retribution by the Jordanian army that followed. After the war and the Israeli occupation of Lebanon in the 1980s, Arafat and most of the PLO leadership escaped to exile in Tunis. Exile meant that they no longer had the same intimate connection with the Palestinians and also alienated them from the conditions that the majority of Palestinian faced. The distance between the Palestinian masses and the leadership based in exile was clearly demonstrated at the beginning of the first Intifada. The PLO leadership in exile was completely taken by surprise by this event, as was the Israeli regime. The first Intifada provided the basis for the growth of a new leadership from below in the West Bank and the Gaza strip. After the signing of the Oslo agreement brought the Tunis leadership back to the Occupied Territories, tensions and disagreements developed between it and the local leadership which have remained in different forms up to the present day. At the beginning of the 1990s the pace of the Intifada had slowed as a consequence of years of struggle without the defeat of the Israeli military occupation of the territories. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the support of the Fatah for Sadam Husain during the first Gulf War left the PLO isolated and financially bankrupt. Under the pressure of US imperialism, which feared future upheavals in the region, the Israeli ruling class took advantage of the PLO's weakened position to force it into negotiations and to accept the Oslo agreement. This deal was never meant to give the Palestinians national liberation. It was designed to grant a Bantustan-type prison existence to the Palestinian masses with the Palestinian Authority acting as guards and the Israeli state as prison governor. The Israeli ruling class preferred to deal with the old weak leadership from Tunis which was not as militant as the leadership on the ground. Arafat's regime represented the capitalist interests of the Palestinian elite and was totally dependent on the Israeli ruling class for its existence. As such it could not and never intended to solve the problems of the Palestinians. The standard of living under the PA regime declined severely hand in hand with the continuing oppression by the Israeli Defence Forces. At the same time a small elite enriched itself on the expense of the masses. Without any solution to the problems of daily life the peace process couldn't last for long. This was the basis for the second Intifada. Second Intifada The second Intifada was aimed against both the Israeli regime and in a distorted way the PA. The first reaction of the PA leadership was to condemn this outburst of the Palestinian masses. Only after they saw they could not hold back the movement, they tried to take the lead of the intifada. Over the last few years the Israeli blockade on Arafat in Ramallah, gave him back the status of a symbol of the Palestinian resistance. However, despite the fact that for many years Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, yearned for Arafat's death, the news about Arafat's life-threatening illness came at a very inconvenient time for him. In addition to the fear of being blamed for his death, and the affect it might have on the Palestinian street, the death of Arafat actually poses serious questions concerning the strategy of the Israeli ruling class. For the last few years the main claim of the Israeli regime was that Arafat is an obstacle to any negotiation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. This was one of the main arguments Sharon used to justify the disengagement plan. The death of Arafat could lead to events which dramatically change the situation in Israel and he PA. Many names have been mentioned as candidates to replace Arafat as the PA president and the leader of the PLO and Fatah: Abu Alla, Abu Mazen, Muhamad Dahlan, even Faruq Kadumi (who opposed the Oslo agreement at first) and Marwan Baraguti who has sat in an Israeli jail for more than 2 years and holds credit for that in the Palestinian street. But none of them have the credit Arafat had as a symbol and a guerilla fighter. Even during Arafat's life we saw early struggles over the future control of the Gaza strip, when last summer Dahlan's faction in Fatah challenged the control of Arafat's armed forces. More complicated Now the situation has became more complicated, since Hamas have also laid a claim for a share in governing the PA. Hamas enjoy mass support in Gaza, but if it became part of the PA this might change over the long run and could cause enormous pressure to be exerted on the PA by the imperialist powers who could oppose its inclusion. Other issues might bring clashes quite quickly – even before his death there was a demand by the PA for him to be buried at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem which was ruled out by the Israeli authorities. Whatever the eventual decision on this issue, the main question will be that the funeral will be accompanied by a mass presence of Palestinians on the streets in a situation which will not be fully under the control of the PA. At the end of October Sharon won the vote on the disengagement plan in the Knesset (Israeli parliament). The Israeli ruling class wants to withdraw from the Gaza strip, but many of the Likud MPs from Sharon's party are opposed which has exerted huge pressure on the Prime Minister. Four of Likud's ministers tried to ambush Sharon during the voting. Sharon suffers from a lack of support inside his party, and his governmental coalition includes less than half of all MPs and therefore the government is unstable. At the moment he claims that nothing has changed since the death of Arafat, but there is strong pressure from inside the Likud for canceling the disengagement plan and going back to negotiations with a new future partner. The option of a government of national unity is still open but it seems like the next general elections in Israel are only a matter of a short time away. The death of Arafat has released forces of instability that were hidden beneath the surface, building up for a long time. These pressures did not develop because of the personality of Arafat but because of the inability of capitalism and imperialism to solve the daily problems of Palestinian and Israeli workers. The solution is way beyond the hands of capitalism and its agents. The problems of the masses can only be solved by the organisation of society under a socialist plan to reconcile national differences by establishing two socialist states as part of the struggle to build a socialist federation on the basis of equal rights in the Middle East.

Gunmen Storm Gaza Govt Office, Challenge Arafat

Gunmen Storm Gaza Govt Office, Challenge Arafat
1 hour, 40 minutes ago By Shahdi al-Kashif
GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian militants briefly commandeered a government building in the Gaza Strip) on Saturday, demanding President Yasser Arafat reinstate comrades they said had been dismissed from the national security forces. The Arafat-led Palestinian Authority, which is reeling from widespread unrest at charges of corruption in its ranks, rejected as "fabrication" the charges by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades gunmen who stormed the governorate of Khan Younis town at dawn. Hours earlier, unidentified Palestinians torched a two-storey police station in the nearby village of al-Zawaida. "We are trying to determine who took advantage of the instability in the Palestinian territories to commit this crime," Mayor Ahmed Abu Zayyid said. Al-Aqsa denied involvement. Dozens of militants barricaded in the Khan Younis office building had demanded the Palestinian president fire his nephew, Moussa Arafat, whose appointment to a top Gaza security post last week sparked armed standoffs with reformist vigilantes. By afternoon, the militants dispersed after announcing a deal under which 11 al-Aqsa men who they said had been dismissed from security jobs by Moussa Arafat would be reinstated. "The crisis is over, as we received a decision by President Yasser Arafat to stop the dismissal," the militants' leader, using the nom de guerre Abu al-Haj, told Reuters by telephone. Al-Aqsa, a disparate group of Fatah young bloods, has spearheaded a revolt that erupted in September 2000 after talks on Palestinian statehood in Israeli-occupied Gaza and the West Bank stalled. Its members have also grown vocal, and violent, in challenging the old guard's grip on Palestinian government. Moussa Arafat said no al-Aqsa members served in the security forces, nor had there been any firings. "This (Khan Younis militants' claim) is a fabrication," he said in a statement. But Moussa Arafat added that 10 security men were under investigation on suspicion of unspecified "security offences." Pointing to the al-Aqsa-Fatah link, Israel and the United States accuse Arafat of encouraging Palestinian violence. He denies it. The Palestinian president shuffled security chiefs on Monday, but did not dismiss his nephew. He has also scrambled to head off a resignation threat by Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, who demands long-awaited reform of security forces.

Arafat, Qrei' make up

by Omar Karmi PRIME MINISTER Ahmed Qrei' on July 27 rescinded his resignation ten days after he tendered it, after an emergency meeting with President Yasser Arafat apparently brought the government crisis to an end. “President Arafat demonstrated his confidence in me by rejecting my resignation. I value this confidence that he has placed in me and I will therefore continue in my role,” Qrei' said to reporters after the meeting. For his part, Arafat stressed the need to consolidate Palestinian ranks to confront the challenges facing the Palestinian people. He also criticized the media for focusing too much on the crisis and not enough on “Israeli crimes.” The meeting is reported to have ended in agreement to adopt the reform document issued by the Legislative Council in May 2002, and the Cabinet is to assume control over the police and preventive security service. It was also agreed during the meeting that Legislative Council would hold a special session next week to determine the work and responsibilities of the three security apparatuses, though, according to foreign minister Nabil Shaath, the recent appointments in the security agencies were not discussed. Shaath also said no Cabinet reshuffle would take place at the moment. Legislative Council member, Hanan Ashrawi, who earlier in the week had called for an end to the “one-man-show,” and who was present at the July 27 meeting, said Arafat had authorized Qrei' to take measures against corrupt officials. Minister for Negotiations Affairs Saeb Erekat said Arafat had already instructed the Attorney General to expedite work on corruption files that had been transferred from the government and vowed that there would be no immunity for any official in this respect. Egypt welcomed the outcome of the meeting – “It is a useful development,” the Associated Press quoted Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher as saying on July 27 – after earlier in the week on July 21 having to deny a newspaper report in the London-based Al Quds Al Arabi that hinted at a possible Egyptian role in the Gaza protests. On July 21, a presidential spokesperson reaffirmed Cairo 's position that “without Arafat the Palestinian cause will not be solved.” Before meeting Egyptian officials in Cairo on July 28, however, US Secretary of State Colin Powell greeted the agreement with some skepticism. “President Arafat is the master of the ambiguous statement or the statement with the yo-yo string on it. It gets pulled back,” Powell said. “We're looking for action. When we see that (Qrei') has real authority over the security forces and is taking action to make them more effective and efficient, make them more competent and is taking action against terrorism, then we'll be convinced.” The meeting followed a week in which unrest in the Gaza Strip had calmed but not disappeared. On July 25, dozens of armed men took over the Khan Yunis Governorate headquarters demanding the reappointment of members of the security services who had been dismissed. On July 22, Fateh organized a large demonstration in Gaza City in which thousands, many armed, marched through the streets to the Legislative Council building. Addressing the crowd, leading Fateh figure, Samir Masharawi said the movement would continue its demonstrations to remove corruption. He also cautioned protestors, however, that “disagreement does not have to be fighting,” and called on all to desist from attacking any institutions. On July 21, a special commission of the Legislative Council, headed by Marwan Kanafani, and including Ziad Abu Amr, Abu Ali Shaheen, Azmi Shueibi, Hasan Asfour and Imad Falouji, had called on Arafat to accept the resignation of the government because it had failed to assume its duties under the Basic Law, the temporary Constitution. The political turmoil overshadowed the violence, which nevertheless continued apace. On July 21, ten houses were destroyed in Rafah by Israeli forces, and the day after, July 22, two members of Islamic Jihad 's military wing, Al Quds Brigades, were assassinated in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City by missiles fired from Israeli helicopters. On July 24, a 17-year-old was shot and killed in Beit Hanoun, and five further houses were demolished in Rafah. An incursion into Tulkarm on July 25 by an Israeli special forces unit left six members of Fateh's military wing, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, dead. According to residents, the Israeli army surrounded the house after the shootings and prevented ambulances from reaching the wounded. On the same day, Israeli Apache helicopters also shelled an empty house in the Zaitoun neighborhood, injuring four bystanders, and 12 children were injured by shelling in the Khan Yunis area, after a Qassem rocket had hit the Gush Katif settlement, wounding seven settlers. Also in Khan Yunis, a woman, 50, and a girl, 12, were killed on July 26 in the besieged town of Beit Hanoun . According to residents, the two were killed and several wounded, when Israeli troops opened fire at homes in the town now in its 29th day under siege. -Published July 28, 2004©Palestine Report http://www.palestinereport.org/article.php?article=446