Arafat: Peacemaker or terrorist?

-By Pritam S Rana

Published in The Kathmandu Post, November 13, 2004, Saturday

Yasser Arafat died on November 11, 2004 leaving behind a legacy that can either bring peace between Palestinians and Israelis or it could mean decades of conflict. The man, Arafat, whose last office was the president of Palestinian Authority wasa symbol to Palestinians and Rabas as the champion of Palestinian nationalism. His unique style of wearing his keffiyeh, which looked like the map of "Palestine", is remebered by many of his admirers. His "legendary exploits" in his long struggle against Israel made him a role model not only for Arabs and Palestinians but also for all Muslims around the world. But despite Arafat's stature as father figure of the Palestinian movement for statehood, in his long struggle against Israel, Arafat employed violence against not only armed forces of his opponents but also against civilians, including women and children. He practiced violence for political aims and thus fully qualifies to the tag of an accomplished international terrorist. Later in his life, Arafat sought diplomatic victory to military solution, but he and his organization never gave up violence as a tool to achieve Palestinian statehood and rights.

According to PLO official version, Mohammed Yasser Abdul-Raouf Qudwa al Husseini, was born in August 24, 1929 in Jerusalem purportedly related to Jerusalem Husseini clan. Many historians including Christophe Bolanski, Jihan el Tahri and Said Aburish say Arafat was actually born in Cairo, Egypt. Aburish claims that "Arafat sought to establish his Palestinian credentials and promote his eventual claim to leadership...". During 1948, the [first] Arab Israeli War, Arafat left Cairo University to fight for Palestinian independence. During Suez crisis [1956], Arafat was an Egyptian Army officer. After Suez war, Arafat moved to Kuwait and founded, Fatah, an organization dedicated to forming Palestine in place of Israel and Jordan. Fatah's one of the first attempts was to raid Israel and to destroy a water pump in 1964. The Fatah mounted numerous raids inside Israel from Jordan, Lebanon and Gaza during the time. These raids from very early on did not distinguish military and civilians. All Israelis even children were targets. from this observation, we can deduce the type of mentality of rafat and his accomplices.

Also in 1964, The Arab League created the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as a tool in the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. Fatah, initially appprehensive of PLO, gradually became its dominant faction. PLO recognized in 1967, after Arab defeat at the hands of Israel, that it could not count on Arab states to defeat Israel. therefore, it chose the path of international terrorism, which established PLO's reputation. In 1968, the Palestine National Council met and revised their charter to liberate Palestine with armed struggle. Notably, Yasser Arafat was elected chairman of of the PLO in 1969, apost he held till his death. In 1970, Jordan based Palestinians and King Hussein's forces fought bitterly until Arafat and his supporters had to leave Jordan for Lebanon. This was bitter defeat for Arafat as he lost an important bastion to attack Israel. In 1972, in most barabaric manner defying all international norms, a Fatah faction calling itself Black September group, murdered 11 Israeli athletes in Olympic village of Munich.

After another defeat of the raba sates in 1973, Arafat decided to shift from terrorism to diplomatic offensive against Israel. He wanted to legitimize his crusade. PLO gained important recognition from the United Nations and Arab League as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Arafat and his PLO were based in much of the 1970s in Lebanon. there, the PLO created such a huge apparatus, a state within a state was formed which looked after the welfare of the Palestinians as well as arming them. Lebanon served as the new bastion to raid Israel. Commando raids and artillery bombardment in Israel forced it [Israel] to encroach upon Lebanese territory. 1n 1978, a limited invasion and in 1982, a full-scale invasion were results of Arafat and his Palestinian fedayeens' anti-Israeli activity. PLO helped to destabilize Lebanon to such an extent that it contributed to a civil war and thousands of Lebanese were persecuted and killed by Palestinian fighters. Araft was chased out of Lebanon to Tunisia. In 1985, hijacking of cruise liner "Achille Lauro" implicated Palestinians from Arafat's organization, which resulted in murder of a wheelchair-bound Jewish passenger.

In 1988, before UN general asembly, Arafat vowed to give up terrorism and promised recognition of Israel's right to existence. we were seeing the transformation of Aafat, the master terrorist to Arafat, the statesman. However later, we come to know he had not altogether given up terrorism. Ginally in 1991 Madrid conference, israel talked openly with Palestinians for the first time. Secret Oslo negotiations followed with aim to give Palestinaians self-rule. On September 13, 1993, Israel and Palestinians signed Declaration of Principles hosted by US president Bill Clinton. Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, the nobel signatories were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the following year. Arafat's reasons to change into a peacenik can be attributed to such reasons as the collapse of his primary backer, the Soviet Union. Besides, Rafat must have understood that Israel and its ally, the US are far too stronger for him to challenge militarily. He must have tried to win the hearts and minds of the world by going for legitimate claims in a peaceful diplomatic manner.

Arfat is also known for Arab resistance movement called the Intifada, which took place amidst great international publicity in 1988-89. the spectacle of rock throwing youths pitted against Israel's army dominated news across the world and helped gain sympathy of the world's people for the Palestinians. Arafat was declared president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996. The issue of Jerusalem, Jewish settlement and terrorism by radical Islamists and continuing struggle mars Israeli-Palestinian relations to this day. The next generation of leaders ought to understand that a Palestinian state cannot stand in opposition to Israel. Despite historic rivalry illustrated with Arafat's life itself, there is no alternative to peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Palestinians need peacemakers not terrorists.

Note:-Some facts are borrowed from www.wikipedia.org; the current fighting initiated by Hamas denotes that war is imminent. Provocations of rocket strikes into Sderot and towns in the interior has invited Israeli reprisals.
(to be continued...)