Arafat Emerges From Headquarters
Thursday: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat flashes the victory sign.
Thursday, May 02, 2002
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Evoking both Winston Churchill and Richard Nixon, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat held up his hand in a V-sign as he came out of his Ramallah headquarters Thursday morning, blinking in the bright daylight after a month of indoor confinement by Israeli troops.
Hundreds of his supporters chanted "God is Great" in Arabic and cheered as the 72-year-old leader, a little pale and unsteady, appeared in the doorway. Arafat bobbed his hand along to the chanting before getting into a black limousine with his assault rifle-toting guards and speeding off to inspect the damage to Ramallah.
The Israeli military had kept Arafat inside the Palestinian Authority compound since Jan. 18, vowing that he would not be let out until he turned over the men suspected of assassinating the Israeli tourism minister in October.
In late March, immediately after the deadly Passover suicide bombing that killed over two dozen Israelis, the soldiers went into the compound itself, reducing Arafat's immediate authority to a few rooms.
To the south, on the other side of Jerusalem from Ramallah, another confrontation took a turn for the worse. Fire broke out in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity compound early Thursday, during intense gunbattles between Israeli troops and gunmen holed up in one of Christianity's holiest shrines.
The 4th-century basilica, built over Jesus' traditional birth grotto, was unharmed, but several offices and dormitory rooms were damaged, Palestinian witnesses said. The Palestinians said the fire was sparked by Israeli flares, that lit up the night sky during the fighting, while Israel accused the Palestinians of arson.
Arafat received word of the fire shortly after Israeli troops left his compound. Pounding his fist angrily on the table, Arafat called Israelis "terrorists, Nazis and racists" and accused them of intentionally damaging the shrine.
Afterwards, Arafat surveyed the damage in Ramallah. "The more destruction I see, the stronger I get," he told reporters.
Yet Arafat also held out hope for a renewal of peace efforts, noting that a majority of Israelis and Palestinians favor a peace deal. Israel's government has branded Arafat an enemy and said he was no longer a partner in peacemaking.
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Israeli tanks pulled out of Ramallah late Wednesday, after six wanted men in Arafat's compound, including the four men wanted for the tourism minister's death, were driven to a Jericho prison where they will be guarded by British and American jailers — part of a U.S.-brokered deal that led to Arafat's release.
As the troops pulled out of Ramallah, hundreds of Palestinians surged toward Arafat's compound. In the parking lot just outside his office, Palestinian men hugged and kissed each other on the cheeks to celebrate the Israeli withdrawal. Dozens of Palestinian security officers who had been holed up with Arafat chanted and thrust their rifles into the air in unison.
After daybreak Thursday, hundreds of ordinary Palestinians wandered around the sprawling complex, which had been under Israeli control since Israel launched its military offensive against Palestinian militants in the West Bank more than a month ago.
Residents with shovels and brooms dug up earthen barricades Israeli troops had erected around the compound, while others took stock of the damage. Buildings had been scorched or punctured with large holes from Israeli shelling, and cars flattened by tanks were strewn in the parking lot.
"You see what happened here," said Saleh Yassin, 32, a Palestinian policeman who lives near Arafat's headquarters. "'Angry' is too little a word for how we feel."
In his tour of Ramallah on Thursday, Arafat visited the main hospital, briefly pausing for prayers in the parking lot where several Palestinians killed during Israel's invasion were buried in makeshift graves.
Under the terms of his release, Arafat is free to travel in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and abroad — for the first time in five months. However, aides said he was likely to stay in the Palestinian territories for at least the next few days.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned that if Arafat goes abroad and attacks on Israelis resume, Arafat may not be allowed to return. Sharon told the ABC-TV program Nightline that violence often breaks out when Arafat is out of the country.
"So if there will be a wave of terror, and if he'll be going around the world inciting," Sharon said, "then we have to consider and discuss what to do."
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Israel had first imposed restrictions on Arafat five months ago, when it destroyed his helicopters in air strikes, effectively grounding him in Ramallah in an attempt to pressure him to rein in Palestinian militants and prevent attacks on Israelis.
The blockade was gradually tightened, with tanks deployed outside his headquarters in January. On March 29, troops took over Arafat's compound, confining him and several hundred aides and security guards to a few rooms.
Shortly after Israeli troops withdrew from the compound, a gunbattle erupted at the Church of the Nativity early Thursday. It was not clear who started the exchange, during which soldiers fired flares and smokebombs. The fire burned for about half an hour, a short distance from the basilica, and three Palestinians trying to put it out were injured.
The Franciscan press office in Rome said the parish hall and offices of the Franciscan monastery in the church compound were destroyed. In a statement, the Franciscans, a Roman Catholic order, held Israelis and Palestinians equally responsible for "this continuing, intolerable and increasingly dangerous situation."
A papal envoy, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, met Thursday with Israeli President Moshe Katsav to try to resolve the monthlong standoff. The cardinal said he was to meet with Arafat later in the day.
Israeli forces have been surrounding the church since April 2, when more than 200 Palestinians, including gunmen, took refuge inside as Israeli troops invaded Bethlehem. Israel says everyone is free to go, except for 20 to 30 wanted militiamen inside. The Palestinians demand safe passage to Gaza for the wanted men, while Israel says they must be tried by Israel or sent into exile.
The church remains the last point of contention from Israel's large-scale incursion. Israeli forces have withdrawn from all West Bank cities, except Bethlehem, but have continued to raid Palestinian areas in search for militants.
Early Thursday, Israeli tanks and armored vehicles moved into the town of Tulkarem, declaring a curfew and arresting five supporters of the Islamic militant group Hamas. Troops also entered the Tel and Beita villages, and the Al Arroub refugee camp, the military said.
Israel has declared the West Bank offensive a success — and it appeared that a new debate was emerging between Israel's traditional political rivals about whether to resume serious peace talks with the Palestinians.
Israel's Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who heads the moderate Labor Party, said the ultimate success of the offensive "will be judged by the speed with which we return to diplomatic negotiations."
At the United Nations, meanwhile, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was canceling a U.N. fact-finding mission to the Jenin refugee camp — where Israel and the Palestinian fought their fiercest battles of the offensive because of Israel's refusal to cooperate with the team.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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