The passing of Yasser Arafat came just a few months short of the 40
years since he first launched the armed resistance for the
liberation of Palestine, together with his brethren in the
Palestinian Liberation Movement (Fateh). Arafat was a man who
embraced life, yet did not fear martyrdom for the sake of
Palestine. His patience was his strong feature; his deep faith
helped him throughout his highly eventful life, especially during
the last three years, when he faced up to Ariel Sharon and his
military machine as they tightened their siege on his headquarters
[in Ramallah]. He would say, "They want me a fugitive, and I want
to be a martyr, a martyr, a martyr."
Yasser Arafat - whose name was Mohammad Abdel Ra'uf al-Qudwa -was
born on August 24, 1929. He grew up in Jerusalem in the household
of his maternal uncles, the Abu Sauds. On the personal level,
Arafat did not care much for mundane matters and lived frugally,
even recklessly. His style of living did not change even though his
financial situation improved considerably after he graduated from
university and worked as an engineer in Kuwait in the mid-1950s,
and despite of his many achievements later on, like the launching
of the uprising, the declaration in 1988 of the state, or his
election as president of the Palestinian state in 1989. For 60
years he remained single and used to boast about being married to
the cause. When he finally decided to marry, he opted for a simple,
unostentatious ceremony. It was not until the establishment of the
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in 1994 that his colleagues
could prevail upon him to have a modest annual celebration for his
birthday.
Abu Ammar
The political history of Abu Ammar (Arafat's nom de guerre), on the
other hand, is highly eventful, hectic and full of surprises. After
assuming the leadership of Fateh in 1965, he survived several
assassination attempts, both on the part of the Israelis, as well
as on the part of some of his brethren. He even escaped certain
death when his plane crashed in the Libyan desert in 1992. In
addition he constantly had to contend with Israeli, international,
Arab, and Palestinian attempts to destabilize his leadership within
Fateh and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). But his
Machiavellian abilities, his capacity to preempt political storms,
and his qualities as a tactician who could make and unmake
alliances as the need arose all helped him elude the political
traps along the way. He succeeded in resisting all attempts,
internal and external, to check his authority and reduce him to a
figurehead stripped of all powers. Ever vigilant, he oversaw all
security arrangements pertaining to his person, and thus managed to
survive for such a long time.
It is no secret that there was no love lost between Arafat and
regional and international powers, especially the U.S. If they
managed to prevail upon Sharon and his security forces not to harm
Arafat, it was only due to their recognition, based on in-depth
analysis, of Arafat's centrality to Palestine and the region, and
his capacity to impact the course of events. And so, although
criticized, and even hated, by many for his stances and conduct,
his tenacity in the face of adversity tells another story. He was
merely a man, a father, who struggled to achieve freedom and
happiness for his people, his family; and he worked actively for
the formation of an independent Palestinian national movement
within the broader context of an Arab liberation movement.
Launching a Liberation Movement
In 1959, together with Abu Jihad, Abu Iyad, Yusuf al-Najjar and a
few others, he founded the Palestinian Liberation Movement (whose
anagram in Arabic is Fateh). In due course, Arafat came to head
both the political and military wings of the movement, and led four
consecutive generations of Palestinians on the road to freedom and
dignity. He succeeded in putting the name of Palestine on the map,
and in convincing the world of the justness of of his people's
cause and their right to independence. He thus made Abu Ammar - the
man and the name - the symbol of Palestinian struggle.
When the Arab armies were defeated in June 1967, Arafat met in
Damascus with his brethren and Palestinian leaders in the Arab
national movement and other factions. Morale was at its lowest,
especially following Gamal Abdel Nasser's defeat. Some said to
Arafat, "All is lost, the cause is finished," to which he retorted,
"You are wrong. This is not the end, it is the beginning. We have
to rethink our position, to form parties and to get rid of certain
slogans." Arafat recognized that the June war and the defeat of
Abdel Nasser's Egypt confirmed the fallacy that "Arab unity is the
way to the liberation of Palestine." Instead, he embraced the
mottos, "Palestinian armed struggle is the way to liberation," and
"The liberation of Palestine is the key to Arab unity." These were
met with a large dose of skepticism by his companions, who thought
it was just an attempt at morale building, since everybody was left
deeply shattered by the destruction of the Arab armies along with
the hopes and aspirations of Abdel Nasser.
At the time, Arafat succeeded in pushing the Fateh central
committee to endorse the preparation for an armed popular uprising
in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Together with some
followers he collected weapons and explosives from the Golan and
sent them to the West Bank. Wasting no time, he infiltrated into
the OPT immediately after the war. There he began establishing a
popular base, training camps and underground resistance cells
against the Israeli occupation and its civil and military rule. He
modeled his strategy on the experiences of such figures as Sheikh
Izzeddin al-Qassam, Mao Tse Tung, Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, Fidel
Castro and the leaders of the Algerian revolution. For a long
period, his font of inspiration remained the 1936 Palestinian
Revolt and the popular revolutions of China, Vietnam, Cuba and
Algeria.
Adopting a Headdress
Arafat made the city of Nablus and its countryside his headquarters
and came to be known by the local inhabitants as Hajj Abu Mohammad.
With the narrow, winding and crowded streets of its old city, the
Qassaba, Nablus seemed an ideal base for guerrilla warfare. Another
reason was the rich history of the city which had distinguished
itself during the fight against British occupation and Jewish
immigration, especially during the 1922, 1929, 1936 and 1939
revolts. Nablus became the launching pad for Arafat's activities.
From there, he would scour the length and breadth of the West Bank,
from Jenin in the north, to Ramallah and Jerusalem in the center,
down to Hebron in the south. His contacts also extended to towns
and refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, and to areas in the Naqab (the
Negev), the Triangle and the Galilee. He donned peasant clothing
and adopted the kaffiyyeh as a headdress, which only left him on
very rare occasions. He had first chosen a solid white color, along
the lines of Palestinian personalities and elders. When he left the
West Bank, Abu Ammar shifted to the black-and-white checkered
pattern and his comrades followed suit. This kaffiyyeh was to
become both a slogan and a symbol of the fight for Palestinian
freedom.
Following a long stay in the West Bank, he was tracked down and
pursued by the Israeli authorities throughout the towns and
villages and, he came close to being caught on several occasions.
Arafat decided to relocate to the East Bank in Jordan. He set up
Fateh bases all along the Jordanian-Israeli border as well as in
the Wadi Riqad area and the Yarmouk River along the Syrian-Israeli
border. Thus the Jordanian Ghor, the heights of the town of Salt,
the environs of the city of Amman, and the refugee camps of Baqa'a,
Sweileh, Zarqah and Irbid became a field for covert factional and
military activity.
Al-Karamah
The stated position of Fateh leaders was always the independence of
the Palestinian movement and the non-interference in the internal
affairs of Arab countries. Nevertheless, Arafat and his colleagues
Abu Sabri, Abu Jihad and Abu Yussef al-Najjar managed to establish
strong and secret relations with a large number of highly placed
Jordanian officers. The Palestinian leaders were able to bank on
this during the battles that broke out between the Jordanian army
and the Palestinian guerrillas in September 1970 (Black September),
just as they had done before when they used the East Bank to
infiltrate into the West Bank to carry out operations against the
Israeli occupation forces. The collaboration between the two
parties reached its apex in 1968 during the Battle of al-Karamah
when, together with the Jordanian army, the Palestinians succeeded
in repulsing the invading forces of then-General Moshe Dayan.
In the wake of this victory, Arafat saw his position and that of
Fateh as being greatly enhanced. This prompted him to consider
taking over the PLO after having rejected the notion for years, as
he viewed the organization as an Arab product and a tool in the
hands of Abdel Nasser. Nonetheless, Arafat succeeded in assuming
the leadership of the PLO and declared it the only legitimate
representative of the Palestinian people.
A Wealth of Experience
For the better part of 40 years, Arafat championed the struggle for
independence. Along the way he acquired a wealth of experience in
political matters, as well as in resistance capability. With such
experience, Arafat was able to consolidate his position among the
Palestinians, leading them especially through the very turbulent
period of the latter half of the 20th century. He was able to
simultaneously control Fateh, the Palestinian Authority, and the
entire national movement.
It is hard for any one man to accomplish on his own what Arafat
managed to achieve. Were it not for him, the Palestinian National
Council (PNC), the highest Palestinian legislative authority, would
have found it quite difficult to initiate a peace process in 1988
when Arafat declared the establishment of a Palestinian state only
in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and recognized the existence of
the State of Israel on the rest of the land of historical
Palestine. He was the only person who could have signed the
Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement reached in the 1993 Declaration
of Principles (DOP), culminating in the Oslo Accords. In 1996,
Arafat prevailed upon the PNC to adopt a resolution abolishing the
clauses of the PLO Charter that ran counter to the letter and
spirit of the Oslo agreement, some of which called for the
destruction of Israel. It is the opinion of this writer that Arafat
would have been the only Palestinian leader with the power to sign
an agreement dealing with final-status issues to end the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict, including making certain historic
concessions, such as giving up part of the al-Aqsa wall (al-Buraq),
and other matters.
A 'Terrorist' Striving for Peace
Even before the onset of the peace process and the conclusion of
the Oslo agreement, Arafat had always been branded by both Israel
and the U.S. as a terrorist, heading a terrorist organization, and
he was later accused of corruption. In the wake of the Oslo
agreement, Arafat was, nonetheless, transformed overnight into a
man of peace who believed in a peaceful coexistence between
Palestinians and Israelis. He even exhausted his life in the
pursuit of this aim. And it is this same man who went on to win the
Nobel Peace Prize (1994), and was received at the White House more
than 25 times, meeting with American presidents more often than any
other world leader.
As a leader, Arafat's position as a symbol of the Palestinian
national struggle - a 40-year battle for freedom, independence and
a state - cannot be challenged. This protracted fight has earned
him his historical legitimacy. His legal legitimacy he acquired
through democratic elections. He did not inherit the presidency of
Palestine.
During the past decade, the international community came to realize
Arafat's pivotal role in the quest for a solution to the
Arab-Israeli conflict. The claim by Sharon and the Israeli right
that he was an obstacle to peace is a flimsy excuse. Essentially,
Arafat's vision of a final settlement predicated on two states for
two peoples coincided to a large extent with that of the United
Nations and the European Union. They all differ quite substantially
with Sharon's concept and that of his ally, President George W.
Bush.
Undeniable Legacy
Official Arab circles regarded him as a troublemaker and a source
of problems; Sharon and Bush denounced him as a terrorist, leading
his people to perdition. Arafat will, nevertheless, go down in Arab
history as one who awakened his people from deep lethargy, and
opened their eyes to the strategic perils besetting them. A person
who won a prize for peace, specifically because he believed in a
peaceful resolution to the conflict and worked tirelessly to
achieve that aim, cannot be a bloodthirsty terrorist bent on
destruction. In any event, Arafat's personal and political fate
must necessarily go in tandem with the Palestinian question, not be
isolated from it.
Despite the criticism that can be leveled against his style of
governing and his position regarding institution-building, it is
undeniable that he has succeeded in unifying his people under the
banner of the PLO, and in imparting in them a sense of pride in
their Palestinian identity. His other achievement was to revive the
national cause and to give it a place of priority on the
international agenda after it had been languishing for years in the
archives of nations and governments. Finally, it is thanks to those
who have struggled during the Arafat era and under his leadership
that the Palestinian question cannot be swept under the carpet
anymore, nor can the Palestinian people be denied their right to a
state. Those who have tried, and failed, to sideline Arafat can but
recognize the legacy he has left behind.