People's Democracy

A Tribute To A Valiant Fighter

Sitaram Yechury

COMRADE Yasser Arafat is no more. 

As the official Indian delegation led by the external affairs minister Natwar Singh and including railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, parliamentary affairs minister Gulam Nabi Azad and myself boarded a special air force aircraft to Cairo to participate in Comrade Arafat’s last journey, little did we realise what was in store.  The delegation left in a hurry to be present at Cairo on Friday, the 12th November, to participate in the last journey that was to begin at 11 a.m.

Comrade Arafat’s  body was brought from Paris in a special aircraft  and was kept at the military base in Cairo.  November 12 was the last Friday before Id and, hence, is considered more auspicious than the others by Muslims. From the military base, the body was to be flown in a special aircraft to Ramallah where the final burial was to take place. 

Such was the international reaction to Arafat’s death that the Egyptian authorities were overwhelmed by the number of international delegations that reached to pay homage. We were informed that on the night of November 11 alone, nearly 90 special aircrafts landed at the Cairo airport carrying many Heads of State,  prime ministers, foreign ministers and other important dignitaries. Such was the spontaneous reaction that the Egyptian authorities were hard-pressed to make the necessary arrangements. 

The Indian delegation landed in the early hours of November 12 and proceeded to the special enclosure where the body was kept.  Only then could we see the vast range of world’s political leadership that had assembled to pay homage.  Apart from the Heads of States from the Arab countries, there were prime ministers that included Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe) and Rajapakse (Sri Lanka), British foreign secretary Jack Straw  and many such leaders were thronged the streets of Cairo in the last journey.

The body was initially kept in a large tent, in true Arab style, while the ayaats from the Quran were being recited.  As the body moved towards the special plane parked at the military airway, many of the foreign dignitaries could not enter the area since arrangements for such a large gathering were not made. Both for security reasons and to complete the process before the prayers began on the last Friday of the Ramzan, the whole procedure was undertaken in a hurry. By the time our delegation reached the  parked aircraft, Comrade Arafat’s body was already loaded on to the plane. 

EVERLASTING SYMBOL

This entire experience encapsulates Comrade Arafat’s standing in the Arab world.  A seven square kilometer area of the military base in Cairo was cordoned off by the authorities.  No civilian was allowed to enter this area.  Likewise, nobody from within this area could go into the city till the plane carrying Arafat’s body departed.  In this way, a popular last journey of Arafat was preempted.

By what was seen by the world subsequently at Ramallah, it was clear that a popular participation in Cairo would have attracted hundreds of thousands of mourners.  Cairo city alone has half a million Palestinian refugees.  Besides, Arafat symbolised not only the Palestinian struggle but also represented the urge for a dignified respected existence of the Arab masses. Unfortunately, the people in the Arab world were not given the opportunity to express their grief and mourn their departed leader.

While Arafat was a leader of the Arab masses, the same cannot be said as far as the Arab ruling classes are concerned. When many Arab countries were succumbing to US pressures and machinations and thereby disrupting Arab unity, Arafat was seen by many as being too “uncompromising”. On the other hand, Arafat and the PLO often saw the lack of unity amongst the Arab world as one of the main reasons for the success of the US-Israel axis. 

This, in a sense, sums up Yasser Arafat’s stature in the Arab world.  He was the leader of the Arab masses.  He was one of the last of the everlasting symbols of national liberation movements.  He was a patriot to the core.  At the same time, while the masses loved him, the political leadership of the Arab countries kept him at a distance lest they incur the wrath of the USA. Arafat’s life, in that sense, personified the fundamental Arab contradiction.

However, it was a unique last journey and funeral for a unique leader. The array of world leaders in attendance in Cairo and the deeply mourning sea of humanity at Ramallah combined to tell the whole story of Arafat’s life.  It is, indeed, significant and symbolic that his last rites were performed at Ramallah.  It is equally significant that he was buried in a concrete coffin to be moved to Jerusalem at a later date.  The hope that, one day, east Jerusalem would be the capital of independent and sovereign Palestine is, thus, reinforced. 

Arafat was a person who deeply respected all religions. In one sense, he was extremely secular. Ramallah, for that matter the entire area of Palestine and Jerusalem, has been the confluence of many religious traditions. Apart from Judaism, Christianity and Islam that directly originate from these lands legend has it that many other religions also crossed paths here.  According to one such legend, which is yet to be historically proved, Ramallah is supposed to have received its name from the confluence of  Ram and Allah.  Whatever may be the truth, the import of this legend on Arafat’s life and work cannot be missed.

A FINE HUMAN BEING

I had the honour and privilege to be associated with Comrade Arafat for nearly two decades or more.  During the second half of 1980s, we would meet frequently for the preparations for holding the Congress of the Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organisation (AAPSO) in New Delhi in 1989.  Through 1988 and 1989, I had to visit AAPSO headquarters at Cairo on a number of occasions for these preparations. Comrade Arafat was both interested and involved in the preparations of this conference. He attended the AAPSO Congress in New Delhi and his trademark bear hug with Rajiv Gandhi was the lasting impression of that Congress.

To me, he emerged as a fine human being grappling with the contradictions and conflicts of the times. The Palestinians, as all of us know, have been victims of a gigantic imperialist fraud.  In order to appease themselves and to atone for their own sins of the crimes that they perpetuated against the Jews, the western powers carved out the Jewish State of Israel from Arab lands.  The least they could do, if they were serious about atoning for their past crimes is to have parted with some of their lands for a Jewish State. Instead, the imperialist powers tore asunder the Arab lands and denied the Palestinians their fundamental right to a homeland.  Imperialism, however, do not stop at this.  They aided and abetted  the Zionist-Israeli political leadership into occupying further Arab lands.  When resistance against this began, the US-Israel axis termed this as terrorism and cracked down  with fierce militarily force. The simple fact of the matter is that the Palestinian resistance to the occupation of their lands is a genuine expression of their yearning for a homeland and liberty. Arafat used to constantly tell the world that when Israel vacates the occupied territories and if terrorist attacks continue after that, then he would be the first to condemn and act against them. The basic question is that of Israel vacating its illegal occupation.  Armed resistance is the consequence of this occupation.

Throughout his life, Arafat had to battle on many fronts – with US imperialism directly, with Israel and its military assaults, with the fundamentalist elements within the ranks of the Palestinians themselves and with the vacillating and prevaricating political leadership of some of the Arab countries.  At the same time, he was the symbol of the Palestinian cause that moved across the globe soliciting support and solidarity.   He was the indefatigable fighter always dressed in his military combat fatigue with the traditional Palestinian headgear and a charming smile. Once, in Cairo, I asked him, if the pistol he always carried had real bullets!  He told me that it will be difficult to demonstrate in conference hall!!  But, opened the revolver to show me the real bullets.  There are many, he would say, who wanted him to use this.  “But I will use it only when I am forced to”. All through his life, Arafat, always sought a peaceful solution to the Palestinian problem.

He will forever be remembered as the valiant fighter for the Palestinian cause and the champion for world peace.  The world has lost one of the foremost champions of the national liberation movement that emerged in the 20th century.