Arafat: Revered By Palestinians Despite Smearing Campaigns By Hamdan Azhar Yousuf

Arafat: Revered By Palestinians Despite Smearing Campaigns

By Hamdan Azhar Yousuf

Al-Jazeerah, November 19, 2004

In this new media age, the truth is hard to find. Ever since the passing of President Yasser Arafat, there has been so much dirt floating around the airwaves that one truly wonders if some people have no sense of shame. Even after his death, vicious and often vulgar lies are propagated against this great man, the man who founded the modern Palestinian movement. An Israeli thinker laments “It seems that 37 years as occupiers have bestialized our society and left it bereft even of common decency”.
It would be an understatement to say that Arafat was loved. He was revered; he was one of those special individuals that come along every so often who bring that most precious of commodities: hope. Arafat gave hope to millions of displaced and oppressed Palestinians of a better life to come. He gave them hope that the future would herald for them a state of their own.

For forty years, he struggled relentlessly for a Palestinian state. And it is because of this determination, that today, everyone in the world knows about Palestine. He refused to budge, over years of pressure and intimidation, on his insistence on the right of self-determination for his people. For all his effort, even George W. Bush, the hawkish yes-man to extremist Ariel Sharon, could not resist the groundswell in public opinion, finally, in 2001, announcing his support for a Palestinian state. Without Arafat, the Palestinians would today be a disorganized mass of refugees at the brink of extinction, surviving on the whims of despots and occupiers. “Who cared about the Palestinian people before him”, asks Avnery. If the likes of Sharon had their way, there would be no Palestinian people. Arafat brought the plight of his people into the national forum, making him a martyr not only for Palestinians, but for all lovers of justice around the world.

In1993, Arafat met with President Clinton and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to sign the Oslo Agreement, in which he recognized Israel’s right to exist, in return for a grant of autonomy to the Palestinian territories. Oslo was Arafat’s most significant contribution to the peace process; yet, it is a shame that sometimes extremists thwart the cause of peace and justice. Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish fanatic, and with Sharon’s inciteful visit to Masjid al-Aqsa, the Middle East once again erupted in violence in 2000. Arafat’s successors, Abu Mazen and Abul Ala, inherit a great legacy, and must strive for the fulfillment of Arafat’s dream. In the Arab world, the only way to gain legitimacy is to earn it. By being steadfast in pursuit of a Palestinian state, these leaders can truly live up to Arafat’s once-quixotic vision. For the extremists in Israel, the passing of Arafat represents a deafening blow; for years, he has been used as a red-herring to prevent any progress on the peace front. For the Israeli people however, this is the perfect opportunity to push their leaders toward a lasting resolution of the Middle East conflict. For the only way for Israel to have peace is for the Palestinians to have peace also. The time has come for Israel to take real steps, such as removing the West Bank settlements that have been the cause for so much evil unleashed on the Palestinian people. President Bush, who also unwittingly played into Sharon’s hands with the “no negotiation with Arafat” policy must now act, and act decisively. As PM Blair stated, there can be no excuse now for Bush not to make firm demands on Israel and to push for the creation of a contiguous and independent Palestinian state.

Israeli hawks can continue their chant that Arafat was a terrorist, but to us, as lovers of justice, he was the Palestinian movement, and he used every tool at his disposal to fight for justice. In fact, his involvement with violence, is mild compared to that of the father of the state of Israel, Menachim Begin, who rose to fame by blowing up the King David Hotel, killing hundreds of diplomats, and went on to lead Israel and win a Nobel Peace Prize.

However, what is up to us now is about more than Arafat, and to continue in these useless arguments is a distracter from a very real issue, that of the plight of the Palestinian and Israeli people. We cannot and must not accept a status quo where the tools of collective punishment, including assassination and humiliation, are used to terrorize an entire people, nor can we accept a situation in which an entire nation is made to live in fear of the next bombing. Thirty years ago this week Yasser Arafat walked into the UN and proclaimed: “I come carrying an olive branch and a freedom fighter’s gun; do not let this olive branch fall from my hand.” What we must do now is continue the struggle for peace in the Middle East, which can only happen upon the creation of a Palestinian state. To do any less is a disservice to the legacies of Abu Ammar and his partner Rabin.

M. Hamdan Azhar Yousuf, an undergraduate in Economics at the Pennsylvania State University, is a Representative to the Political Action Task Force of the Muslim Student Association of the US His other works can be viewed at www.personal.psu.edu/hxy152

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

Apartheid Wall


The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03).

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