Gaza holds 'own funeral'
2004-11-12 18:59
Gaza City - Several thousand Palestinians in Gaza City marched behind a mock funeral procession for Yasser Arafat on Friday, frustrated at missing the veteran leader's actual burial in the West Bank.
Scheduled to run simultaneously with events in Ramallah, the ceremony began at the Omari mosque, one of the oldest in the sprawling Mediterranean city, but many Palestinians stayed at home, glued to their television sets to watch the real deal.
Worshippers prayed in front of an empty coffin draped in the Palestinian standard under a wreath of carnations, before hundreds of gunmen and members of the public began the two-kilometre trek to Arafat's battered headquarters.
Masked gunmen and armed youths fired off repeated volleys of bullets into the air amid a sea of Palestinian and French flags, along with banners from the Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Fatah factions as national anthems were pumped out of loudspeakers.
Rapidly after their arrival at the Muntada compound they dispersed to break the day-long fast on the last Friday during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
The procession was organised by the 13 principal Palestinian factions "out of loyalty to president Yasser Arafat ... and to underscore our determination to continue the road to Jerusalem," said a statement from the militants.
Where shall we find another?
"When I saw his coffin on television 20 minutes ago, I cried and my heart told me to go out and participate in something about today. Where can we find another Abu Ammar (Arafat)? Where?" said Jamal Sakkala, 45, a hospital staff nurse.
Prevented from travelling to the West Bank, Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip were disappointed not to have seen their leader one last time despite receiving him upon his triumphant return from exile in 1994.
They were not even accorded a sight of the military helicopter carrying Arafat's the coffin from Egypt to Ramallah for burial, which did not fly over the Gaza Strip.
"We hoped he would have been buried in Gaza and I am disappointed, but the point is that Yasser Arafat, wherever he is, is in our hearts. I just wanted to take part and stand by him," said one university lecturer.
As the mock procession broke up for the evening meal, organisers invited members of the public to return after night-fall to pay their condolences in a tent erected next to the heli-pad on the compound, which Israeli forces shelled in 2001.