November 12, 2004

Jordan Times

Father of a Movement
Editorial

Yasser Arafat, the quintessential symbol of Palestinian nationalism, died. Arafat was designated this position in the arena of world politics because of his qualities of determination, extreme personal courage and the fact that he always stood with his people. He participated in incursions from Jordan into Israel in the post-1967 era. Forced to leave the Kingdom, he remained with his people in Beirut until the Israeli invasion, and was expelled to Tunis. But he returned to Lebanon and settled in a Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli, only to be expelled by the Syrians. He returned to Tunis until the signing of the 1993 Oslo accords and, finally, was able to set foot in the occupied territories where, for more than the last two years, he has been confined by Israel to a destroyed compound.

As the father of post-World War II Palestinian nationalism, Arafat, along with a small group of Palestinians living in Kuwait, set up Fateh, which was to become the dominant organisation within the Palestinian movement, taking over the existing but weak structure of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in the late 1960s.

Over the years since, Arafat had different levels and intensities of fights with almost every single Arab country, irrespective of ideological bases. There were Syria, Jordan, Baathist Iraq, Nasser's and Sadat's Egypt (which had struck a peace deal with Israel). On the street, he at times allied himself, and at times fought, with the Islamists. The only consistent trait about Arafat was his own sense of Palestinian identity and it was that sense that he preached. It never changed, and it was that sense of identity that contributed to his conflicts and alliances with different forces at different times. That sense of Palestinian nationalism, too, had a large impact on Jordan and the internal conditions in the Kingdom. The mutual lack of trust, therefore, was a negative in the history of the Palestinian cause.

Still Arafat remained the undisputed, unchallenged leader of the Palestinian people. Friends and detractors agree that Arafat elicited extreme loyalty from those working for him. And when there were differences with any of his colleagues, they never emerged in open revolt against him.

He pulled off Oslo, surprising almost everyone and generating debate within the Palestinian community inside and outside the territories. Palestinian nationalism, under Arafat, gained strength outside the occupied territories, with the US and Israel hoping to develop a leadership inside the territories, as an ageing Arafat was reduced to the rubble of the Muqata. But in his mission to realise an independent Palestinian state Arafat failed. He was never able to transcend his application of nepotism and favouritism.

At the same time, it is unfair to put Arafat on the same level with other Arab leaders, particularly as Israel never gave him a chance. The death of Yitzhak Rabin and the rise of Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon have been among the elements that did not help. We know now that these two and their likes have never been serious about peace with the Palestinians. And they have systematically dismantled the Palestinian National Authority — an authority which many Palestinians and others felt was not a modern structure that would energise the Palestinians and produce a progressive state.

Arafat has left us and generations of the future to analyse and hopefully settle a conflict in modern history that has made headlines for more than five decades, and has taken so many victims along the way.