Hamas has joined other Palestinian political factions in wishing the ailing Yasir Arafat a speedy recovery, but it is also readying for life after Arafat. The ailing Palestinian leader, though disliked by many Palestinians for a variety of reasons, still enjoys widespread respect among the wider public, including the powerful Islamist camp. Hamas realises, as, indeed, does the rest of the Palestinian political class, that the political diminution of Arafat and certainly his death would signal the end of an era and the beginning of a new one whose features and borders are difficult to determine now. Khalid Amayreh reports. Read more about Hamas prepares for post-Arafat era
Palestinian Authority officials and opposition leaders have vowed to safeguard national unity in the wake of leader Yasir Arafat’s death. Seeking to cope with the absence of the man who was at the helm of the Palestinian national struggle for nearly 40 years, leaders of the mainstream Fatah movement, which Arafat founded and led until his death, undertook not to allow his passing to impact the movement’s ability to keep up the struggle against Israeli occupation. Other Palestinians intellectuals are not so optimistic about the post-Arafat era. Some believe that the passing of Arafat will turn out to be “an earth-shaking event”. Read more about Palestinians to continue struggle
Two days in October 2004 may have brought new winds into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but no one can say which way they will blow. These stirrings came after eighteen months of political standstill, which led Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to initiate a plan for unilateral disengagement from Gaza and part of the West Bank. On October 26, the Knesset approved this plan by a margin of 66-44. The next night, suddenly, a new possibility raised its head. The health of Yasser Arafat, President of the Palestinian Authority (PA), took a sudden turn for the worse. Read more about The Bag of Aeolus
Had we awakened to a John Kerry victory, anyone seriously concerned about the conflicts in Palestine and Iraq would have faced the stark reality that Kerry offered nothing substantially different from President George W. Bush in either situation. Yet that provides little consolation for seeing Bush re-elected, as the desire to see him defeated had little to do with support for Kerry. What many wanted was accountability - to see the author of so many disastrous policies thrown out. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah examines what Bush’s victory means for the Middle East. Read more about Bush, America and the Middle East
Although his political obituary was written again and again, Yasser Arafat displayed a legendary tenacity and an amazing ability to pull through at the eleventh hour, usually thanks to his remarkable skill in cobbling together coalitions and allies from very disparate backgrounds. Trapped by Ariel Sharon in the rubble of his Ramallah headquarters, though, Arafat was marginalized politically and virtually powerless militarily since the murderous Israeli attack on Palestinian cities in March-April 2002 that killed over 500 people and destroyed most of the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority. He departs the Palestinian and Middle Eastern political stage as a wraith of his former self, with no political heir apparent. Read more about Yasser Arafat, 1929-2004
In the early hours of October 28, as dozens of journalists, mid-rung political officials and curious onlookers milled around outside President Arafat’s Ramallah compound speculating on the health of their leader, one Palestinian reporter evoked critical minutes in the shaping of early Islam. Cynically, he recalled how the Prophet Mohammed’s followers disputed the succession only hours after he lay dead. It was an acknowledgement of the moment’s import (some believed the president had already passed away) and impending uncertainty. From this week’s Palestine Report, Charmaine Seitz reports. Read more about Arafat's departure brings uncertainty
The grave illness of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has given rise to frenzied speculation about what will happen after he is no longer on the scene. Much of this speculation is based on the false premise that the presence or absence of a single individual is a decisive factor in settling a complex, century-old conflict. EI co-founder Ali Abunimah argues that the “Arafat issue” is a major distraction, and examines who has a vested interest in the veteran Palestinian leader’s survival. Read more about Thinking beyond Arafat
The ICJ advisory opinion, one of the most important legal opinions on the question of Palestine and international peace and security in the region since the United Nations assumed responsibility for the future of the country in 1947, presents a clear alternative to the status quo � i.e., the Oslo process, the international Road Map, the Sharon disengagement plan, and, the April 2004 US letter of assurance to Israel. International law provides the foundation for this alternative. The legal opinion rendered by the ICJ lays out the �driving rules� or universal standards for resolving the conflict. Read more about The International Court and the Wall: An Alternative Road Map
Regular EI contributor Hasan Abu Nimah was a member of the joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation at the Washington peace talks in the early 1990s, and he was present when the Jordan-Israel peace treaty was signed ten years ago. He argues that Israel views this treaty, like other agreements, as a tool to strengthen itself at the expense of its neighbours, and has squandered the chance for genuine peace. On the sombre 10th anniversary of the treaty, Israelis should ask their leaders why they never missed an opportunity to miss all the opportunities for peace that their neighbours have repeatedly offered them. Read more about Peace with Jordan: Another opportunity missed by Israel
Does the death of an Arab weigh the same as that of a US or Israeli citizen? The Israeli army, with utter impunity, has killed more unarmed Palestinian civilians since September 2000 than the number of people who died on September 11, 2001. In conducting 238 extrajudicial executions the army has also killed 186 bystanders (including 26 women and 39 children). Two thirds of the 621 children (two thirds under 15 years) killed at checkpoints, in the street, on the way to school, in their homes, died from small arms fire, directed in over half of cases to the head, neck and chest—the sniper’s wound. Clearly, soldiers are routinely authorised to shoot to kill children in situations of minimal or no threat. These statistics attract far less publicity than suicide bombings, atrocious though these are too. Derek Summerfield comments. Read more about Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes
