Jenin rebels want Arafat back
2004-10-31 11:19
Jenin, West Bank - Residents in the Jenin refugee camp, a bastion of Palestinian resistance, hope an ailing Yasser Arafat can soon resume power, despite having no illusions about the leader's Palestinian Authority.
"He is our father, the one who has led our fight," chorused three veiled women standing in front of a vegetable stand in camp, home to some 15 000 refugees, in the northern West Bank.
"We won't accept anyone else, and we hope he will return quickly and in good shape," said 60-year-old Subeia Turkman.
Frail and enfeebled, the 75-year-old Palestinian leader was on Sunday spending his third day in a Paris hospital undergoing tests for a blood disorder that medics have warned could be fatal.
Further up the street are newly built concrete houses, the first of several thousand homes rebuilt by the United Nations with funding from the United Arab Emirates following a fierce battle between Israeli troops and militants in April 2002 - one of the most deadly confrontations in the four-year intifada.
About 52 Palestinians and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed during fierce clashes in the camp, much of which was destroyed by the Israeli army.
"I'm not political but when Arafat left, I wept because there is no one else like him," admitted 57-year-old Shawki Said, who runs a taxi rank in the city.
Arafat last visited Jenin in May 2002, several weeks after the deadly incursion, but failed to tour the camp, leaving the shell-shocked residents shocked and hostile.
Asked about the visit, Said was indignant.
"There might have been several youngsters who protested, but you know what it's like - it's like when three Arabs make a few problems in Paris and suddenly everyone thinks that all Arabs are bad."
On a steep hillside in the camp, at least one house is still in ruins - the home of Zakaria Zubeidi, the powerful local leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed offshoot of Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement.
Holding one of the top spots on Israel's most-wanted list, Zubeidi is widely revered in Jenin, where he is viewed as something of a Robin Hood-type character. Late last month, Israeli troops dynamited his house.
In a narrow alley inside the camp, another young Al Aqsa member, a pistol stuck in his waistband, says he also hopes Arafat will return "in good health".
"He is old but his mind is still stong," he said, adding that Arafat's May visit had been cut short for security reasons.
"He couldn't speak to everyone," he said, defending the man who has embodied the Palestinian struggle for about four decades.
- AFP