Arafat Dies

P

PDJ

On a break
Joined
May 2, 2003
Messages
4,132
Location
brum
From the BBC site

Veteran leader Yasser Arafat dies

Yasser Arafat leaving the West Bank for the last time
The veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has died in a French hospital, nearly two weeks after being transferred from the West Bank.
The 75-year-old, who dominated Palestinian politics for 40 years, died at 0330 (0230GMT) on Thursday.

His body is to be flown to the Egyptian capital Cairo for a funeral, attended by Arab leaders and other guests.

He will then be taken to the West Bank town of Ramallah, where he will be buried at his compound.

Flags were flying at half mast outside Mr Arafat's compound, where he had been kept under virtual house arrest by the Israelis for two-and-a-half years.

The BBC's James Reynolds in Ramallah said a line of guards in green uniforms had gathered around the compound as journalists gathered.

One or two people were seen wearing the checkered headscarf that became Mr Arafat's trademark.

"This is a black day in our history, and we grieve today for the death of our president," said Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat, who first made the death public.

Mr Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestinian Authority, died at Percy military hospital at Clamart on November 11 at 0330 (0230 GMT)

French spokesman


Send us your views
World reaction

There is no clear line of succession to the Palestinian leadership following Mr Arafat's death.


Palestinian leaders have agreed a plan to prevent a power struggle and chaos in the volatile Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian parliamentary speaker, Rawhi Fattuh, will take over as president of the Palestinian Authority until an election is held to fill the post.

Mr Erekat called on Palestinians to "unite" and ensure a smooth transition to a new leadership.

Deep coma

Mr Arafat had been in a coma at the Percy military hospital in the Clamart suburb of Paris since 3 November.

He had a brain haemorrhage on Tuesday, and in his final hours was suffering from brain damage and kidney and liver failure.


They [Israelis] want me either as a prisoner, a fugitive, or dead. I tell them: Martyr

Yasser Arafat - 29 March 2002

Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath said late Wednesday that only Mr Arafat's heart and lungs were continuing to function normally.

However, top Palestinian cleric, Taissir Dayut Tamimi, ruled out any question of switching off Mr Arafat's life support.

It has not been made clear what illness the Palestinian leader was suffering from, though doctors ruled out cancer and poisoning.

He was brought by French aircraft from Ramallah to Paris on 29 October, suffering from a blood disorder.

Tests showed he had a low count of blood platelets, which are needed for clotting.

Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh flew into the Egyptian capital on Wednesday to make arrangements for a state funeral there.

It has been suggested a military and religious ceremony would be conducted at Cairo's international airport.

The decision to hold the funeral in Egypt is seen as a compromise solution, enabling Arab leaders and other guests to attend without the complication of travelling to the West Bank or Gaza.

But precisely who might attend is not clear, says the BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo.

Mr Arafat had many admirers but also made enemies in the Arab world and elsewhere.

Hope for peace?

Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei has already been assigned some of Mr Arafat's powers.

His predecessor, Mahmoud Abbas, is running the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, headed by Mr Arafat for more than 40 years.

YASSER ARAFAT: KEY DATES
24 Aug 1929: Born in Cairo
1948: Founds Fatah
1969: Elected PLO chairman
1974: Addresses UN General Assembly
1982: Expelled from Lebanon by Israelis
1990: Supports Saddam Hussein during First Gulf War
1991: Marries Suha Tawil
1993: At the White House signs peace agreement with Israel
1994: Jointly awarded Nobel peace prize with Rabin and Peres
2001: Israel blockades him inside Ramallah headquarters


Yasser Arafat: Obituary

Analysts believe Mr Arafat's death could provide an opportunity to restart the Middle East peace process.

BBC News website's world affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds says it might force Israel to make good on its claim that it was only Yasser Arafat who was blocking peace talks.

US President George W Bush said on Wednesday he saw an opening for renewed peace negotiations with a new Palestinian leadership.

"There will be an opening for peace when leadership of the Palestinian people steps forward and says help us build a democratic and free society," he said.


The Israeli military remains on high alert.
 
Very funny description for him to call him veteran leader,
a most accurate description would be the terrorist ,assesin or thief responsible of the death of many innocent and responsible of not accepting what Barak and Clinton offered in Camp David.


For his followers ,dont be afraid of her the monetary future of his wife because they have some saves in Swiss.........
 
He was a Veteran (Age at death 75), he was the Palestinian leader. So what is wrong with the discription?

Did he or did he not win the peace prize???

I think over the next few weeks it will proberly come out that all he was anyway was a figure head and there is someone else in the back ground making all the orders, Just like what happens in the USA.

We all know Bush is only a figure head, have you ever seen him in a press interview when someone asks him a question that he has not been rehursed for? he has to wait for a min or two untill someone tells him what to say in is ear peice.

Don't get me wrong, i dont agree with what the Palestinian do. But i dont agree with what the Israelis do either. But then again i dont beleive in killing people full stop.

Sorry if this upsets anyone..

Regards
 
Palestine and its problems

A new state has come into existence in Palestine, the Jewish State of Israel, and it has come into existence against the intentions of the British Labour Government. This Government which, to paraphrase Mae West, has climbed the ladder of power wrong by wrong, took its stand on the Balfour Declaration of 1917 guaranteeing the Jews a national home in Palestine, but it resisted what was bound to be the inevitable consequence of the carrying out of that declaration, the demand for an independent Jewish State. In 1936 the Arab landowners inspired a revolt against the continued immigration of Jews into Palestine, foreseeing a threat to their interests in the existence of the highly industrial and commercial community that was growing up in their midst. Since then Britain, which had secured a mandate over Palestine in 1922, has been exercising a virtual reign of terror. A significant commentary on this is the following statement contained in the News Chronicle:

"Palestine Government has ended its censorship, and yesterday's papers published their first uncensored editions for 12 years.—News Chronicle Correspondents, A.P., Reuter and B.U.P."

Within a few hours of the proclamation of the new Jewish State by its self-appointed Provisional Government, President Truman startled the world by publicly stating that America would recognise it. Commentators of Truman's action attributed it to a late attempt to capture the Jewish vote in the forthcoming presidential election. This is too thin. While in fact it may have this result there is far more behind the action than electioneering propaganda. Jews and Arabs in Palestine, like the Greeks, the Italians and the Jugo-slavs, are pawns in a much greater game which involves oil and the struggle between Russia and the Western Powers for economic domination. Why, for instance, has an allegedly democratic and anti-imperialist Labour Government in Britain supported the semi-feudal Arab landlords against the Jews, particularly when the leader of the Jewish nationalists, Ben Gurion, has proclaimed himself a social democrat and labour leader in sympathy with the outlook of the British Labour Party?

The Labour Government's blundering methods in Palestine are the offspring of attempts to harmonise conflicting policies. For years anti-imperialism has been a plank in the Labour Party's programme and the withdrawal from India, Burma, and Egypt (except the canal zone) is held up as an example of the implementation of this policy. But the Labour Government is also committed to the safeguarding of the British capitalists' commercial and industrial interests; this dictates an opposite policy. Torn between the two they have failed to satisfactorily accomplish either, disappointing their working class supporters and exasperating their capitalist directors. To protect capitalist interests they must take measures to conserve the monopoly of the oil interests and safeguard the supply lines of oil, a great and growing quantity of which comes from the Middle East. A glance at a map will reveal what has guided the blundering and hesitant steps of the Labour Government in Palestine and the adjacent territories.

There are two oil pipe lines from Iraq to the Mediterranean; one through Syria to the Coast, and the other through Transjordan to Haifa. Thus it is necessary to placate or force the ruling groups in each of these territories to favour the production and transport of oil on behalf of Western capitalists. As the Arabs form the majority of the population in these territories the Arab landowners and rulers have been the principal objects of placation, not only by the Labour Government but also by their predecessors, and millions of pounds have been spent, both directly as an annual tribute to Transjordan and Iraq and indirectly under various forms of bribery, to influence a favourable attitude to the oil interests. The final result of terrorism and bribery has been to unite the Jews and Arabs in at least one direction—antipathy to the Labour Government. But the problem does not end with the territories already mentioned. Iran and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company also come into the picture, in dangerous proximity to Russia.

So far we have only looked at a part of the picture. On Saturday, the 15th May, the Daily Express announced, with large headlines, Truman's recognition of the Jewish State. In the very same issue of that paper we read the following, under the headline "Shares Boom on Wall Street":

"New York, Friday.—Shares went up £250,000,000 today in the biggest day Wall Street has seen in years."

"Rises per share were as much as 35s. Experts think another boom market, due to rising profits and rearmament orders lies ahead."

Yes! The vultures are gathering again! What is America's interest in the Middle East and what does it portend? Why, for instance, was America so frantically concerned about the Italian elections, and why does it back British policy in Greece? In the main the immediate answer is the same as that which concerns Britain--and which finally decided the British Government to give up the Mandate in Palestine convinced that America would be forced to help carry the burden. The answer is Oil and Russian expansion; in other words Oil and Strategy. UNO, as usual, has been ignored where matters of fundamental importance to the leading powers are concerned.

Economic necessity has forced America to become a Mediterranean power to whom the future policy of Italy, Greece and the Middle East is a vital matter. The Commander of the US Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Bieri, recently pointed out that the US Fleet intends to stay in the Mediterranean and "American forces will be allocated wherever there are American interests, in closest co-operation with the British." (Manchester Guardian, U.K., 10/9/1947). Modern mechanisation, both for industrial and for military purposes, has converted oil into priority number one. In spite of their own large oil reserves neither America nor Russia can meet their growing needs out of their own production. American oil interests are pressing into the Middle East and the safeguarding of the oil life line is of paramount importance. Russia has already shown its interest in Iranian oil, and it is trying to get a strategic foothold in the Mediterranean. The whole area from the oil fields of Iran, covering the coast of Palestine and the Mediterranean, is as much a matter of concern to American capitalists as to British. So far the British capitalists have borne the costs of maintaining the oil life line. What the British Government has now done is simply throw the ball to America, and America is compelled to take the pass.

The Palestine episode is thus another move in the strategical line-up of the two major imperialistic powers—America and Russia. Russia originally backed the Arabs—then they changed over to support of the Jews. Truman's quick response was obviously aimed at getting in first and forestalling Russia. Russia has since also announced its willingness to recognise the Jewish State, but this need not prevent them from also backing the Arabs. It may be that Russia will find that its imperialistic interests will be better served by backing the Arabs. If it comes to that conclusion it will have no difficulty in finding a pretext for doing so, and we shall witness another somersault in Russian foreign policy. As an imperialist power the Russian Government is not cluttered up or inhibited by any ideals relating to democracy or the self-determination of small nations, Its methods are essentially the same as those of the Western Governments but lacking in the finesse and polish of the latter.

Whether the turmoil in the Middle East will be contained or will involve a wider conflagration (as American investors appear to anticipate) no one can at the moment determine with certainty, but what can be said is that it brings nearer the inevitable clash between Russia and the West. Both Jews and Arabs are in a position to block the oil supply but they would only ruin themselves by attempting to do so. Therefore the question is will either of them be able to turn East or West successfully for assistance.

Within the tormented area of the struggle Arab and Jewish workers have already given evidence of where the chains rub them by the strikes that have taken place against Jewish, Arab and alien masters. These Jewish and Arab workers form the vast mass of the population of the territories involved; they are the poverty-stricken exploitable material without which neither the Jewish nor Arab capitalists and landowners, nor outside capitalists, would be able to reap their harvest of profit from those rich areas. Industrially and commercially Jewish capitalists have been the progressive force. They have brought highly developed Western methods to a backward area, and in places have made the desert bloom. But with Western methods they have brought Western forms of wage-slavery and expanded under cover of nationalist ideals.

Finally the personnel of the Provisional Government of Israel bears a striking likeness to the personnel of the British Labour Government. While this will not make for harmony between the two Governments it will provide another instance of how faithfully Labour Governments reflect capit
 


He was a Veteran (Age at death 75), he was the Palestinian leader. So what is wrong with the discription?
Click to expand...

perhaps whats wrong with it is he led them nowhere unless of course you consider wantless acts of terrorism oh and lining his own back pockets into the bargain constructive. im sure there are far better descriptions than leader to describe him perhaps not printable in family read newspapers but nethertheless better descriptions
 
Of course it is easy to forget that in the early years on or two of the ISRAELI leaders were themselves terrorists.
 
Just announced he will be laid to rest wearing a Newcastle shirt, Spurs shorts and Lazio socks.

His last wish was to be buried in the Gazza strip
 
Originally posted by Derek.Burgess@Nov 11 2004, 06:19 PM
Of course it is easy to forget that in the early years on or two of the ISRAELI leaders were themselves terrorists.
Click to expand...
The point here is that everybody knows he has assesinated innocent people and has robbed a lot of money but some people has simpathy for him and do not try to rebate the accusations,they say and the other did that and they were also bad boys.......


I find it pathetic to try to justificate his actions and the place in which he has left his people is pathetic at the same time he is very very rich......
 
sunybay,
my statement has nothing to the amount of money he had or how many deaths that he is responsible for.

I am merely pointing out that the "other"side has/had it's share of Terrorists who were/are rasponsible for countless deaths and,may be/were very,very rich.

Remove those blinkers
.
 
Isn't it true to say that the modern state of Israel owes its existence to terrorism.Why do I always think the Israelis aren't telling the truth when the appear on television explaing away the deaths of children who looked sideways at a tank.
 
Back
Top