[Marxism] The Electronic Intifada: "Yasser Arafat, 1929-2004"

[Juan Fajardo <fajardos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yasser Arafat, 1929-2004
Obituary, The Electronic Intifada, 10 November 2004


10:07PM US Central Time/6:07AM Palestine Time -- Today, Yasser Arafat,
Chairman of al-Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization and
elected President of the Palestinian Authority, died in Paris from
complications stemming from a blood disorder at the age of 75. [...]

For nearly five decades, Yasser Arafat was a larger-than-life figure for
those who admired him as well as those who hated and feared him, or, to
be more precise, for those who hated and feared the Palestinian view of
history, justice, and politics. Since the late 1960s, Arafat was the
icon of the Palestinian cause. Like Che Guevara, Arafat's image on a
poster, a T-shirt, or a television screen could convey rich and complex
meanings and sentiments across wide and diverse social landscapes. With
his trademark black-and-white checkered kuffiyah draped carefully over
his shoulder so as to assume the proportions and shape of the map of
Palestine, appearances by Arafat were almost always electrifying
political events.

Many are the tales of Israeli, European, South African, and North
American peace activists and journalists who waited hours to meet "Abu
Ammar," Arafat's nom de guerre. After being whisked through the darkened
streets of Beirut, Damascus, Cairo or Tunis in the wee hours of the
morning, many foreigners had a chance to sip coffee in an office or
parlor with the jovial, optimistic, and often emotionally explosive
Arafat. Although having attained international status as a political
leader of a major third world revolutionary movement, Arafat was a small
man, somewhat shy, yet approachable in informal small group meetings and
journalistic interviews. He could also be extremely funny and often
demonstrated a self-deprecating form of humor. Although he stated for
decades that he was married to the cause, he eventually wed in his 60s,
taking Suha Tawil, a woman 34 years his junior, as his spouse in 1990.
Since 2000, they had been living separately. Later, she commented, she
had "married a myth."

Though pro-Israeli commentators' exaggerations of Arafat's viciousness
and bloodthirstiness, coupled with Arafat's poor command of English and
a pervasive 5 o'clock shadow, put off many Western interlocutors, no one
who followed the man's life, comments, transformations, and public
appearances could deny he possessed charisma and an ability to connect
with Palestinians of all classes, religions, and ideological currents,
even after a series of miscalculations on his part that damaged his
credibility among Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular. We
send our condolences to his family and colleagues, and share the
feelings of sadness of the thousands of Palestinians throughout the world.

Few modern figures were as controversial as Yasser Arafat. Lionized by
some and vilified by others, Arafat was a complicated figure. He was the
leader of the PLO since before most Palestinians alive today were born.
Even among his most vocal Palestinian critics, Arafat could inspire
affection and loyalty in a way no other living Palestinian could.
Palestinians, though, were also always his first and most vocal critics,
a reality rarely conveyed by the mainstream press. And in the last
decade of his life, Arafat received considerable and consistent
criticism from Palestinians frustrated by the inevitable disappointments
and injustices of the Oslo Accords, particularly the accelerated
settlement building of this period and the lack of movement on key
social justice and political issues. Arafat also received stinging
rebukes from former friends and supporters in the Arab world as well as
in the West for administrative corruption, mismanagement, favoritism,
and a politics of patronage that made a mockery of democratic practice
in the Palestinian Authority.

[...]

Although his political obituary was written again and again, Arafat
displayed a legendary tenacity and an amazing ability to pull through at
the eleventh hour, usually thanks to his remarkable skill in cobbling
together coalitions and allies from very disparate backgrounds. Trapped
by Sharon in the rubble of his Ramallah headquarters, though, Yasser
Arafat was marginalized politically and virtually powerless militarily
since the murderous Israeli attack on Palestinian cities in March-April
2002 that killed over 500 people and destroyed most of the
infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority. Yet his steadfastness in
maintaining dignity and decorum as the Palestinian president in the
rubble of al-Muqata'a (tr. "[Ramallah] District Headquarters") showed
much of his true nature: tough, patient, cheerful, and uninterested in
comfort, luxuries, and ostentation. Arafat departs the Palestinian and
Middle Eastern political stage as a wraith of his former self, with no
political heir apparent.

Yasser Arafat is survived by his wife, Suha Tawil, and their daughter,
Zahwa.

Ma`a salaameh, yaa Abu `Ammar.

The Electronic Intifada Team

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Full obituary: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3288.shtml


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