Arafat won't go away

2003-06-05 13:22

Ramallah - Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has been flying around the region in recent days, in a flurry of meetings with Arab leaders, US President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Back in a mostly destroyed office in Ramallah, Yasser Arafat has directed his premier every step of the way.

The United States and Israel have worked to sideline Arafat and remove him from all peace contacts, but the veteran PLO leader refuses to fade away. He remains the undisputed leader of his people and has worked feverishly in the past few days to prove it.

He delayed a pre-summit meeting between Sharon and Abbas, publicly greeted a released Palestinian prisoner in a show of power and saw to it that he would have effective veto over any peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.

On Wednesday, he was in constant phone contact with the Palestinian delegation during Abbas's meeting with Bush and Sharon in Aqaba, Jordan, according to one Palestinian official.

He made two adjustments to Abbas's final declaration and was briefed by Abbas on the phone for 20 minutes after the meeting, the official said.

Some of Arafat's international cachet is gone and some of his authority may be seeping to Abbas, but "Arafat still has tremendous power," Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi said.

Israeli officials say they do not care, and have instead focused on their successful efforts at keeping him out of the summit.

"People can say what they want, but Arafat was not there," Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said.

On Thursday, Arafat criticised the summit's achievements. "Unfortunately, the Israelis did not give anything," he said.

Arafat was once widely feted by world leaders. Just a decade ago, he stood before the world and shook Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's hand on the White House lawn as the Oslo accord - the first interim peace agreement - was signed.

Israel and the United States now accuse Arafat of failing to stop terror attacks - at best - during 32 months of Palestinian-Israeli violence. At worst, they accuse him of orchestrating many of the attacks.

Either way, they have refused to deal with him anymore.

Under intense international pressure, Arafat reluctantly appointed Abbas in April.

Now he sits in his compound, the Muqata, as Abbas is courted by world leaders instead.

Once the symbol of Arafat's rule, the Muqata now lays in a permanent state of half ruin, crushed by the Israeli army a year ago during Operation Defensive Shield.

Where buildings once stood, there are now 3m piles of brown dirt and even larger heaps of crushed white stone, broken concrete and twisted metal.

An undulating roof shields only a 6m pile of rubble. Charred, crushed car husks lay stacked in one corner of the compound.

Some of the remaining buildings have cratered walls. A few remain gleaming, white, pristine, untouched.

Arafat has not left this compound since May 2002, afraid that Israel will arrest wanted Palestinians in his office complex while he is gone.

Further, Israel has indicated that if Arafat leaves the West Bank, he will not be allowed to return.

From his ruined headquarters, he has worked to prove that he - and not his soft-spoken premier who took office April 30 - is in charge.

Arafat objected to the makeup of Abbas' proposed Cabinet and reshaped it with many of his allies. He ensured his continued control of most of the Palestinian security forces.

He pushed through a law giving the Arafat-headed PLO executive final say over all negotiating steps with Israel.

He delayed a meeting between Abbas and Sharon for a day last week because he wanted to review Israeli security proposals before approving the talks. When that meeting was over Abbas rushed to the Muqata to brief Arafat.

In a goodwill gesture to Abbas, Sharon agreed to release 100 Palestinian prisoners. When one prisoner, the oldest Palestinian jailed by Israel, was released on Tuesday, he was immediately taken to Arafat's compound, where they grasped hands in front of television cameras.

Palestinian officials say on condition of anonymity that Arafat has been sending a message to the world - and to Abbas - that he is still in charge of making the key decisions on negotiations.

Arafat adviser Saeb Erekat denies any effort to undermine Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen. His appointment as prime minister was a continuation of his 42-year relationship with Arafat, he said.

"No one is more loyal to Arafat than Abu Mazen, and no one is more loyal to Abu Mazen than Arafat," he said.

Abbas has decried efforts to marginalise Arafat, and other Arab leaders say keeping the veteran leader out of a peace agreement will make it very difficult to sell the plan to the Palestinian people.

Hundreds of Palestinians, waving Arafat posters, marched through the streets of Gaza on Thursday in support of the Palestinian leader, demanding that attempts to isolate him stop.

According to an April poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Arafat's popularity rating was 35%, while Abbas's was 3%, the same as the poll's margin of error.

Even after Abbas was confirmed as prime minister at the end of April, Palestinians still considered Arafat their leader.

Abbas is simply his top political adviser, said Waleed Ayyoub, 30, a Ramallah artist, standing on the street surround by his portraits of Arafat, Saddam Hussein and Ernesto "Che" Gueverra, but none of Abbas.

The men need to work together if they are to bring peace and a state to their people, Ayyoub said.

"If the two cooperate, they can do something. But one of them without the other will achieve nothing," he said. - Sapa-AP

- SAPA