Arafat to Gaza rally: We'll liberate Jerusalem
Sep. 29, 2002
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat vowed yesterday to continue his struggle for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
The remarks made by telephone from his besieged and largely destroyed Ramallah compound were transmitted to thousands of Palestinians at a Gaza rally marking the second year of the Palestinian uprising. He also addressed demonstrators in the West Bank town of Kalkilya.
In the Gaza Strip, over 10,000 took to the streets, Palestinian sources estimated. The demonstrators included women, children, students, and Fatah, PLO, and Hamas activists.
"We, the Palestinian people, care not about the siege, because we are the stronger people!" Arafat shouted.
"The people are with you, Abu Amar!" the crowd chanted back, using the 73-year-old leader's nom de guerre.
"We reiterate on this anniversary that we are marching until victory and until the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," Arafat told the crowds.
Arafat said the struggle will continue until "a child of our children... will raise the flag of Palestine over the walls of Jerusalem and the minarets of Jerusalem and the churches of Jerusalem. Noble Jerusalem will remain the capital of the Palestinian state whether anybody wants it or not," he said.
"We are not only defending our holy places, Christian and Islamic, but every inch of our holy land," Arafat continued.
The Fatah movement also issued a leaflet yesterday vowing that the struggle against the Israeli occupation would continue till Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders.
Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin also vowed that his group will continue its attacks against Israelis until Israel withdraws from "Palestinian" land. Hamas considers all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Israel proper as "occupied territory."
In Gaza City and most West Bank towns, the protests passed peacefully. There was none of the usual shooting in the air, and relatively few armed men joined the crowds, Palestinian witnesses said.
In Tulkarm and Kalkilya, the IDF lifted its curfew. Mostly women and children took to the streets. In Ramallah, where the curfew remained in place, the army shot tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators.
According to Palestinian sources, one 19-year-old Palestinian was shot dead near Netzarim while throwing stones at the army, and a man in his fifties was killed in Rafah leaving his home.
Despite Arafat's call for defending "every inch of Palestinian land" and Jerusalem, and the Fatah leaflet, Fatah officials said yesterday that they had had called for peaceful demonstrations and had asked their activists in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to keep armed and uniformed demonstrators away from the protests.
Hamas, on the other hand, issued a statement yesterday calling for the Palestinians to "relinquish dreams of a political arrangement" and continue the "military resistance."
But Palestinian officials said more and more people are supporting the idea of changing the uprising from an armed struggle to peaceful popular demonstrations. "At least they support having them separate and parallel," one Fatah source in Gaza said.
Meanwhile, Palestinian legislators and Fatah officials said the siege of Arafat has strengthened the Palestinian leader, who was under growing pressure form his own Fatah movement and senior PLO figures to appoint a new government and cede some of his powers by adding a prime minister to the government. Palestinian legislators also demanded far-reaching reforms of the institutions and the security bodies and were backed by senior Fatah and PLO officials.
The focus that was on the internal reforms has once again turned to Arafat and the Israeli occupation, a PA source said.
Arafat's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said yesterday from inside the only remaining building at the Mukata that the tension between Israel and the US was growing over the siege of Arafat's headquarters and hinted that there may be a breakthrough within the coming 48 hours.
"The UN Security Council resolution, President [George W.] Bush's statements, and pressure from the world community are pushing toward forcing Israel to withdraw within 48 hours," Abu Rudeineh told Reuters.
Palestinian officials said they hope the US has finally realized that the situation and its unconditional support for Israel were hurting its interests in the region. They said over the weekend that they had asked the UN Security Council to convene again to formulate a resolution for the implementation of UN Resolution 1435, which calls for an Israeli withdrawal from the Mukata and the PA areas and demands that Palestinians fight terrorism and bring terrorist suspects to justice.
Palestinian officials said Arafat would never agree to let Israel exile the fugitives who are holed up with him, nor would he agree to send them to jail, since that would mean committing political suicide. He instead is hoping international pressure will force Israel to withdraw. However, a Palestinian source said Arafat may agree to send the fugitives to the Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian source said he believes a compromise could be worked out with the help of the international community to let both Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Arafat "save face."
jpost.com |
