Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (right) honored his onetime rival with a moment of silence.
(Abbas Momani/Getty Images)
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The squat tomb sits in dignified quiet, decked in gleaming white Jerusalem stone on a slope that soon will be carpeted green by 25 species of trees and shrubs.
A two-story prayer hall and 98-foot minaret stand guard nearby, completing a memorial complex for the late Yasser Arafat that is tranquil, stately, and well ordered. It is, in other words, pretty much everything his reign as Palestinian Authority leader was not.
Three years after Arafat's death, Palestinian officials yesterday unveiled a tomb complex on the spot where he was buried Nov. 12, 2004, in a scene of pandemonium a day after his death.
During the ceremony, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, laid a wreath in the colors of the Palestinian flag on the tombstone and honored his onetime rival with a moment of silence.
In a brief speech, Abbas pledged to reclaim part of Jerusalem for his people, the Associated Press reported. The fate of the city, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as a capital, is one of the most explosive issues in peace talks, expected to resume after a US-hosted Mideast conference in Annapolis, Md., later this month.
"We will continue on the path of the martyred President Yasser Arafat to be reburied in Jerusalem, which he loved . . . Jerusalem, which he tried to make, and which all our people are trying to make, the capital of the Palestinian state," Abbas said.
Arafat died at 75 in a French military hospital three years ago today. The exact cause of death remains unknown. Many Palestinians believe he was poisoned and tend to blame Israel.
The Yasser Arafat Mausoleum is next to the offices of Abbas, who succeeded Arafat as Palestinian Authority president. The dedication ceremony drew Palestinian officials, foreign diplomats, and members of the once-dominant Fatah movement that under Arafat was the leading edge of the fight for Palestinian statehood.
Mohammed Shtayyeh, a former housing minister who oversaw construction of the $1.5 million project, said the mausoleum is "an appreciation gesture from the Palestinian people." A planned second phase includes a museum.
"Arafat dominated the scene of Palestinian history for 50 years," said Shtayyeh, who runs a quasi-official Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction. "Many generations remember nobody but him."
The compound's spare design - the pale stone is adorned only with Koran verses in an ornate Arabic script - is meant to symbolize Arafat's Spartan lifestyle and personal sacrifice for the Palestinian cause, Shtayyeh said.
"The human touch of Yasser Arafat is very missed," he said. "The open door of Yasser Arafat is very missed. The charisma is very missed."
While Arafat put the quest for Palestinian nationhood firmly into the world's focus, he bears much of the responsibility for the condition in which Palestinian society now finds itself.
The nation he envisioned is split into rival ministates: one in the Gaza Strip run by the militant Hamas movement, one in the West Bank governed by Abbas. The breakdown began when Fatah lost to Hamas last year in parliamentary elections that became a protest vote against Fatah's graft-ridden rule.
Now Arafat's party is splintered and weary, and Palestinians remain disenchanted over the corruption that enriched Arafat's cronies while he governed.
Arafat once orchestrated chaos to masterful effect, playing rivals off one another to maintain control over his cause. Now that he no longer is around to serve as the glue, his successors have had to struggle to create a semblance of law and order.
The disorder after Arafat's death has left Palestinians of two minds about the late leader. His bearded visage, topped by the trademark checkered kaffiyeh, remains prominent in public offices. But Palestinians can sound less adoring in private.
"On the one hand, they salute him for his achievements. But on the other, they blame him for not achieving their dream and for the problems he left behind," Palestinian commentator Hani Masri said. "His absence showed how much he was still needed and how much of a vacuum he left behind. . . . No other leader can fill his place."
Arafat's funeral erupted in a wild free-for-all as thousands of mourners surged over the walls and past security guards. Officials who had brought the body by helicopter battled for hours to push through the throng to reach the grave.
How long Arafat remains in his spruced-up resting place might come down to politics. He had said he wanted to be buried in Jerusalem, which he hoped one day would serve as capital of a Palestinian state.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
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