Revolutionary forever: Yasser Arafat

Ramallah, West Bank: Five years after his death, Yasser Arafat, the Palestinians' iconic leader, is still remembered as the man who thrived in times of crisis and who constantly gave people hope despite the hardships.

Many Palestinians speculate that if Arafat was still alive, the problems that led to the split between the Islamist Hamas group and the secular Fatah movement would not have taken place, and that Arafat, the artist of manoeuvring, would have found a way out of every predicament.

There are those who also say that if Arafat was alive, he would not have coped differently than his successor Mahmoud Abbas with the conditions that have moved from bad to worse in the Palestinian arena.

"The Palestinian, regional, and international political changes that have developed since Arafat died have become more complex. Maybe if Arafat was alive, the split between Gaza and the West Bank would not have taken place, but even if he was still alive, it would have been difficult for him to manage the crisis of the split and the settlements any differently," said Khaled Farraj, associate director of the Institute of Palestine Studies.

Former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat died on November 11, 2004, in a French hospital where he was treated for an undisclosed illness.

Palestinians widely believe he was poisoned and blame Israel for his death. Israel denies any involvement. The Palestine Liberation Organisation opened an investigation after his death.

Arafat posters still hang on buildings and his pictures are drawn on concrete walls erected by Israel to divide the occupied Palestinian areas and that separate them from Israel.

His last years, spent as a prisoner in his Ramallah headquarters, are remembered by Palestinians as a sign of his rejection to make peace on Israeli terms that fell short of Palestinian aspirations for independence and statehood.

Irrelevant

Israel and the United States considered Arafat irrelevant after the failure of the Camp David summit in July 2000 and blamed him for fuelling the armed uprising that began in September that year.

Arafat, who opted for peace with Israel in 1993 following years of armed struggle to end Israeli occupation, died in 2004 without realising his statehood dream.

His aides said that after years of negotiations, Arafat died convinced that Israel was not ready to make peace with the Palestinians.

His successor, Abbas, unlike Arafat, was neither a fighter nor a military man and did not believe in armed resistance as an option besides negotiations. Abbas limited his options to peace talks as the only means to end occupation.

But Abbas' recent announcement that he would not seek re-election in polls planned for January to express his anger at Israel and disappointment with the US over peace terms has reinforced the Palestinians' belief that Israel was not a partner for peace and the US was not an honest broker.

Aides said Abbas' decision not to run for re-election was not a tactic. The only way to make him change his position would be a change in the positions of Israel and the United States towards resuming peace talks.

Abbas said he was pressed to drop his demand for a total settlement freeze in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and to resume talks on the final status of the Palestinian territories without clear terms of reference for the talks.

Abbas' rejection to comply and his announcement that he would not seek re-election drew concern from the international community and Israel.

For the US, it meant that its efforts to resume talks before the end of the year were hampered, and for Israel it meant additional pressure to make compromises on settlements and peace requirements.

"If Abbas is pressed further to comply with demands that jeopardise the interests of the Palestinians, and if he is pushed to enter talks on terms that would not end occupation, he would take a further step, one he is contemplating, of quitting his position. In this case, and according to the law, the speaker of the Legislative Council, who is a Hamas leader, would take over until elections are held, if they are ever held," ane aide to Abbas said.

"This would throw the entire region into a vicious cycle of violence and instability," he added.

Senior Fatah leader Abbas Zaki said Israel succeeded in besieging Arafat and in winning international support for his isolation under the pretext that he was fuelling the intifada, "but they can't besiege Abbas, the symbol of peace and who does not carry a gun like Arafat did".

Palestinian politicians and some analysts believe that Israel was trying to get rid of Abbas just as it got rid of Arafat for rejecting to make peace on their terms. "But this time the tools and the scenario would be different," analyst Abdul Majid Sweilem said.

Wafa Amr is a freelance journalist based in Ramallah.

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