Arafat’s Legacy: Palestine Clad in Black Awaits Rebirth

By Genevieve Cora Fraser

November 18, 2004

He blew kisses

As he left the stage

Trembling with emotion

He kissed the hands

Holding him up

Arafat has fled

The ravages of time

And attacks on his life

His aspirations

Symbolized by the cage

That detained him

The bulldozed wreckage

Remains

Will hold his remains

The remains of what is

The Palestinian Authority’s

Al-Muqata Headquarters

America gave the green light

For attack Israel didn’t hold back

But ravaged Ramallah

In an act of violent provocation

That provided another

Near death experience

For the cat’s lives

Lived in keffiyeh headdress

And military fatigues

Arafat lived for peace

As well as intrigues

Never purely black and white

He answered the enemies

Of Palestine with blood red resistance

Fatah opened the gates

Of retaliatory hell for an Israel

Sweeping aside

The bones of the fallen

As it launched fresh assaults

On those who remained

But in the end

Arafat’s love outweighed his hate

Despite the reprehensible oppression

The genocidal intent

Of Zionist forces bent

On domination and control

And liberation of Palestine

From its people

Despite Israel’s reign of massacre

Starvation, dehydration

Dispossession

State-sponsored terrorism

Arafat prevailed

With strategy

And determination

Bribes and wit

He wrestled Israeli Demons

To preserve Palestinians’

56 year-old

Right to Return

From ravaged refugee camps

And far flung Diaspora

To their ancestral homeland

Despite all the difficulties

And the troubles we are facing

We will continue

We will continue

We will continue
Arafat said

Because it is the Terra Sancta

The Holy Land

It is not only for Palestinians

But for the Israelis

For all Jews

For all Christians

For all Muslims

This is the Terra Sancta

The Holy Land

Palestine

So spoke Mohammed

Abdel-Raouf Arafat

 al-Qudwa al-Husseini

a.k.a.

Abu Ammar

The man the world knew

As Yasser Arafat

Winner of the Nobel

Famous for brandishing

A pistol

In one hand

And an olive branch

In the other

For some

He was the arch-enemy

But for many

He was the one

They could count on

And now

He is gone

Arafat will never die

He is our leader

He is our father

The People cry

Aching with loss

His legacy

A Free Palestine

Will someday rise

As a Phoenix

In the midnight blue

Palestine will rise

From the blood and ashes

Of brutal occupation

As surely as the rebirth

Of the crescent moon

Or we will die martyrs

Trying

* I extend my deepest sympathy to Palestinians throughout the world on the death of President Arafat.  May the world community now take up the cause of a Free Palestine in the clear light of International Law and the assistance of the General Assembly of the United Nations, rather than the predetermined end-game, the political diversions and dictates of the Zionist Power Elite and their American associates.