[GushShalom] Uri Avnery's description and analysis of three
Mark Graffis
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Subject: [GushShalom] Uri Avnery's description and analysis of three tense
days
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[Here follows Uri Avnery's description and analysis of three tense days -
including Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) - at Arafat's compound.
Uri Avnery
11.10.03
Living Shield
The most dramatic moment arrived in the evening after Yom Kippur.
We were sitting in the courtyard of Arafat's Mukat'ah (compound); a
group of Israeli peace activists and Palestinian friends, senior Palestinian
Authority officials. A pleasant mild wind was blowing after a hot day. We
were chatting about the situation (what else?) and the latest gossip about
the Palestinian leadership. From time to time a senior Palestinian joined us,
before going up to see the President, or coming back from him.
The tall figure of Jibril Rajoub emerged from between the sand sacks
that defend the entrance of the building. He had seen Arafat and joined
our group for a few minutes. "We have heard that the Israeli cabinet is
about to meet," he announced darkly.
We all understood the meaning of that. A meeting of the cabinet - what
could that mean? What if not an attack on the Mukata'ah?
Rajoub entered his black car and sped off on his business. We
exchanged some words about the possibility of an attack - and then,
suddenly, all the lights in the compound went off. A dead silence ensued.
From afar we heard the approaching drone of an airplane.
Nobody said anything. In the brain a thought was passing: "So that's
it!"
And then the light went on, as suddenly as they had gone turned off.
The plane in the air passed us and flew on in the direction of Amman. We
continued to talk as if nothing had happened.
Earlier on that day, the atmosphere had become tense for a different
reason. At noon, one of the volunteers came back to the compound and
recounted that, while he was sitting in a coffee shop, shouts were heard:
"The Israelis are coming!" The owner of the shop urged his guests to run
away, even without paying. Soon after, two army jeeps appeared. From
afar, the sirens of ambulances could be heard. The two jeeps went on to
the narrow street in front of the Muhata'ah, where they went back and
forth. Inside, the rumor spread quickly. It looked like a reconnaissance
patrol before the attack. The jeeps went off to Ramallah's central square.
The children of the neighborhood threw stones at them. A matter of
routine. Calm returned.
The moment we heard about the shocking atrocity in Haifa, on Saturday
afternoon, we understood that we had to hurry to the Mukata'ah. Within
an hour, a small group of ten Israeli peace-activists was organized.
Somehow we succeeded in entering Ramallah, which was surrounded and
cut off by the Israeli army. With us were also some 30 international peace
activists from many countries.
If we had more time, the group might have been larger. But it was the
Jewish holiday season, many of potential participants were abroad, others
could not join on such short notice. But for us, time was of the essence.
It was clear that Ariel Sharon would try to exploit the outrage of the
Jihad, in which whole families were killed, in order to realize his dream of
many years: to kill Yasser Arafat. That was so obvious that a question
arose automatically: Was this, perhaps, the real aim of the initiators to
start
with?
The suicide bomber was a young female lawyer, who wanted to take
personal revenge: both her brother and her fiance were killed by the Israeli
army. In the Palestinian territories there are now thousands of such
people, men and women, and each of them a ticking bomb. They do not
need any political reason. An Israeli who orders the killing of Palestinians,
men, women and children, must know that this may well be the result.
But the Islamic Jihad organization has taken responsibility for the
action. Thereby the personal vendetta became a political act. A political
act has political aims. And the aim could only be connected to the fact that
- as all the world knows - Sharon is ready to kill Arafat at any minute. The
Israeli government has already officially decided to "remove" Arafat.
(Abroad, this word has been falsified into "expel"). Only the Americans
are preventing this, for the time being. But after a major outrage the
American red light might change into green, or at least into yellow. For
Sharon, the slightest yellowish flicker is enough to execute his plan.
A Palestinian organization that sends a suicide bomber in such
circumstances knows that its action will not only kill and wound dozens of
Israelis, women, man and children, but may also cause the death of the
Palestinian leader. It seems that the Jihad - or somebody within the Jihad -
desires this. He hopes that the killing of Arafat will cause the collapse of
the Palestinian Authority, general anarchy throughout the country, the
creation of hundreds of terrorist cells in the Palestinian territories and the
raise of Jihad's prestige sky high.
As it sometimes happens in history, the interests of Jihad are meeting
the interests of Sharon. In order to realize his policy - the removal of the
Palestinian Authority, the enlargement of the settlements all over the
country and the domination of Israel over all the Palestinian territories - he
need an atmosphere of anarchy and an ever-widening cycle of bloodshed.
Arafat is an obstacle in his way, and therefore he wants to "remove" him -
to the next world.
Exactly for this reason, a consistent Israeli peace movement worth its
name must do everything to prevent this act. The killing of Arafat would
be a historical disaster for the State of Israel, because it would mean the
elimination of any chance for peace for generations to come and the
increase of bloodshed to dimension unknown until now.
Therefore we decided to prevent this disaster with the paltry resources
at our disposal.
The reception at the Mukata'ah was tumultuous. Dozens of TV teams
from all over the world, and especially from the Arab world, were crowded
in the courtyard and pounced on us. Questions were showered on us from
all sides and in several languages.
One question turned up again and again: "Do you believe that you can
stop an attack by Sharon?"
We all answered candidly that we don't know. We cannot stop tanks,
warplanes, trained soldiers or disabling gas. But we hope that the very
knowledge that in the compound there is a group of Israelis, as well as
internationals, may constitute one more factor that will be put on the
scales when Sharon and his generals make the decision. If the arguments
for and again outweigh each other, this factor may prove decisive.
(The next day, it was mentioned in the media that one of the
participants in the "security consultation" did indeed raise this point.)
The hour was already late and we were shown our accommodations. In
a large hall that has been restored after the destruction, mattresses were
put along the walls, each one with a thick blanket. Next to the hall, new
and reasonable toilets were built. At one side of the hall were tables with
boxes of coffee and tea, bottles of light drinks, pitta bread, hard cheese
and conserves.
One of Arafat's assistants, Dr. Sami Mussalam, informed us that the
Ra'is was sick and had stayed today in bed, but would receive us
tomorrow morning. In the meantime, he saw to all our needs.
After the hours of organization and traveling, we were quite hungry and
tired. We tried to get the news over Israel radio and chose mattresses for
ourselves. There were different opinions about what was the best place in
case of bombing from the air, as opposed to storming by soldiers. The
toilets? The entrances? All of us slept in his clothes. Most did not even
take off their shoes. For all events, the lights were not put out altogether.
It was possible to sleep only in fits. All through the night the mobile
telephones did not stop ringing. People from America, Europe, South
Africa and Asia kept asking for interviews. We had, so it seemed, become
objects of international curiosity.
At six o'clock in the morning I was woken up by the ringing of the
mobile phone. I ran outside, so as not to disturb the dozens of sleeping
people. A young lady from one of the morning talk shows wanted to know
if I was ready to give an interview at seven o'clock.
Generally I would not have been overjoyed by this, but this time I was
in a good mood. A whole night had passed without anything terrible
happening.
I remained outside. The courtyard was empty, except for a few soldiers
on duty. I took a chair and sat in a corner.
Above me, in the gentle breeze, hundreds of small Palestinian flags
were waving on strings, in addition to the larger flags in the roof. (Once
they were called "PLO flags", and anyone who had one in his possession
was liable to go to prison for three years.) On the walls that surround the
courtyard on three sides (two buildings left standing and the famous
bridge between them) were colorful posters left over from the mass
solidarity demonstration after the "removal" decision of the Sharon
government.
"Our soul, all our soul, to the commander and symbol, brother Abu
Amar" said one of them. Abu Amar is Arafat's nom de guerre. Another, by
the Ministry for Refugee Affairs, said: "For brother Arafat, the symbol of
our struggle, the support of the tents of the Palestinian people". On one of
the posters where the pictures of the Dome of the Rock and the Church of
the Sepulcher. On all of the posters, Arafat with his famous keffiye
(checkered headdress). The golden Dome of the Rock and the picture of
Arafat are the two symbols of the Palestinian struggle, apart from the flag.
The word "symbol" (Rams, in Arabic) appeared on all the posters without
exception.
On one of the wall was hanging a two-floors high cloth with hundreds
of little handprints in the Palestinian colors - red, green and black on a
white background, a present from the children of a refugee camp school.
That morning, all of this looked almost gay. The Mukata'ah was silent,
the few guards seemed bored. Every soldier passing me said politely
"Sabah al-Kheir" (good morning, in Arabic), and some even said "Boker
Tov" (same in Hebrew). Perfect tranquility - but a deceptive one. The
knowledge that all this could be shattered in a moment, with the gay scene
turning into a scene of blood and death, was lingering in the back of the
mind.
At about 11 o'clock, we were told that the Ra'is had got up from his
sickbed and was ready to receive the Israeli human shield members in the
long meeting room.
Since then I have been asked dozens of times: How does he look? Well,
he looked like somebody weakened after an attack of the flu: paler and
thinner. It seemed to me that it would have been better for him to stay in
bed for another day or two. But he had obviously compelled himself to get
up.
He received us, the Israeli peace activists, with much feeling, smiling
broadly, with much shaking of hands and hugging. The fact that in such
an emergency men and women from Israel had come to constitute a
"human shield" had made a deep impression. He spoke about this
repeatedly.
About a dozen TV teams were allowed into the room and started to
record the meeting. Abu-Ala (Ahmad Kurei) also came. Arafat put him
between me and himself and delivered a very strong condemnation of
Saturday's suicide bombing. The Emergency Government of Brother Abu-
Ala, he said, would take the strongest possible steps to put an end to
such outrages.
I noticed the Israeli flag on his breast. A month ago, during another
visit, I saw that he was wearing on the flap of the breast-pocket of his
uniform jacket several emblems of crossed flags: Palestine-Canada,
Palestine-Italy and so on. I removed from my shirt the Gush Shalom
emblem - the crossed flags of Israel and Palestine - and put it in front of
him. He picked it up at once and put it on, above the others.
I was surprised that he had left it on and wore it on that day, too. (Two
days later, at the swearing-in of the Abu-Ala government, he wore this
Israeli flag on his chest.)
After the meeting, Arafat invited us and the international volunteers to
lunch in the hall above our sleeping quarters. On the long tables were the
traditional dishes: mutton on rice, Sinia (hacked meat in Tehina), baked
chicken parts. At the end, real Kenafeh from Nablus, considered the best
in the world, was served. (Kenafeh is an Arab sweet with cheese).
Rachel and I were placed on the two sides of Arafat. Generally he eats
very little and offers with his hands choice morsels of meat or vegetables
to honored guests. This time he sipped only chicken soup specially
prepared for him. He told Rachel, my wife, that he sticks to a strict diet of
chicken soup, which is the best after the attack of viral flu that had
affected the stomach.
Among the guest at the Mukata'ah that day was also an Italian choir.
Before and after lunch they rendered the songs of the Italian partisans
who had fought against the Fascist regime and the Germans. Emotions in
the room ran high when everybody, including Arafat, held raised hands
and joined in the singing. When they had finished, one of the
internationals, a young Japanese, rose and sang a beautiful Japanese
peace song. It appeared that Naoto, whose exact age I could not guess,
has studied sociology but decided to become a singer. He is a perfect
mime, and his good spirits and innocent good-heartedness made him the
darling of all the group.
In the end, a group photo was taken, and all Israelis and internationals
grouped themselves around Arafat. It was hard to believe that this was no
birthday party, but a meeting of people who were risking their lives for
peace.
Yom Kippur passed quietly. We saw the parade of Palestinian
personalities that came and went, while the task of forming the
government was progressing slowly. It was obvious that Arafat's and
Abu-Ala's decision to form a narrow Emergency Government, consisting
of only eight members (apart from the Prime Minister) had disappointed
many central functionaries who remained outside. All the personalities
approached and greeted us warmly.
Arafat's close assistant, Nabil Abu-Rudeina, was asked by journalists
how Palestinians could rely on the United States, the Arab countries,
Europe or the United Nations. His answer: "We rely first of all on our
Israeli friends."
During all of the day, journalists called me from abroad (and from
Israel,
too, but I am not going to tell on those who called me on the holy Yom
Kippur) and asked about the state of Arafat's health. It seemed that a lot of
rumors, some of them quite crazy, were spread outside. Was it true that
Arafat had been poisoned by Israel? I answered that Arafat himself had
not mentioned this during lunch.
At a corner of the courtyard an ambulance is parked permanently (the
same was the practice in Israel during the days of Begin.) In the evening,
another ambulance came in. A lone men got down and approached the
building in unhurried steps. I was told later that this was a friend of the
resident doctor who lives in the Mukata'ah and had come to visit him.
After some time he came out, went to his ambulance, put on the flashing
red light and drove off.
Within an hour I got frantic calls from Tel-Aviv. Was it true that Arafat
had suffered a heart attack? Was it true that he had been sped to hospital?
I could answer with certainty that this was untrue. Afterwards the rumor
spread that he had suffered a light heart attack a few days before. I am not
a doctor, but if to judge by impressions, this rumor seems to me untrue.
On the morning of Yom Kippur, the Abu-Ala government was sworn in.
We, the members of the Israeli group, stood in the first line, in the part of
the hall reserved for the media who were represented massively. We wore
the large sticker of the Gush, also consisting of the flags of Israel and
Palestine.
The ceremony started late because of last minute problems
(Palestinians, like Israelis, cannot do anything without last minute
problems). Immediately after the ceremony was over, Arafat saw us, went
directed up to us and hugged the Israeli activists before the massed
cameras of the world.
That was a personal gesture, but a political one, too. The Palestinian
leader wanted to show the world that a settlement with Israel is the first
item on the agenda of the new government.
For us it was clear that with the setting up of the government, the
imminent danger to the life of Arafat had - for the time being - passed,
together with the terrible results his assassination would entail. After three
days and nights we went home, ready to go there again if the need will
arise, in order to do everything possible to prevent an act that would be a
disaster for Israel. For us, that is the most important patriotic thing we can
do.
From Hawaiian Gardens to Jerusalem:
about how to stop Irving Moskovitz
http://www.stopmoskowitz.org/
Online support for the pilot's letter;
http://www.tayasim.org.il/support.asp?
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