The Advocate

An Interview With a Legend: Arafat

Jae M. Kim

Last June, I spent three weeks in Israel, Palestine and Iraq. While I was in the city of Ramallah, in the West Bank, I interviewed the late Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) president Yasser Arafat in his compound, Mukata. This was my second encounter with Arafat since the outbreak of second intifada in September 2000. This time, however, he was clearly ailing. Below is my brief report on Mr. Arafat, who died on November 11th.

Posters of dead Hamas leaders in Ram Allah

It takes patience to get to the city of Ramallah, located about 20 miles north of Jerusalem. The heavy traffic jam between Jerusalem and Ramallah never dissipates – not because there are many cars, but because there is a notorious Israeli checkpoint at Qalandiya. Local Palestinians hate the Qalandiya checkpoint, which often forces them to wait on line for hours. Every day, thousands of Palestinians are humiliated while waiting to show their ID cards. Israeli soldiers working there are heavily armed and wear bulletproof jackets, even though the summer temperature exceeds 120 degrees at midday. But the soldiers cannot relax because there is always a possibility of suicide bombings.

After passing the checkpoint at Qalandiya, it took only 15 minutes to get to the center of Ramallah. This geographical proximity means that Ramallah, where Mr.Arafat’s Mukata compound is located, would make an easy military target for Israeli forces, if an Israeli commander ever decided to dispatch a military unit with tanks there.
Meanwhile, I found the center of Ramallah plastered with posters showing the faces of ‘martyrs’ killed during the ongoing intifada. Posters also displayed the faces of Hamas leaders, Sheik Ahmed Yassin and Abdul Aziz Rantisi. Both were assassinated in Israeli missile strikes last spring.

Posters of Marwan Barghouti also attracted my attention. In one poster, he was clasping his cuffed hands while sitting in court. The Secretary General of Fatah (the most mainstream group among various Palestinian political factions) in the West Bank, Barghouti was arrested by Israeli soldiers in 2002 and thereafter was punished with four life sentences. In a 2001 interview, he told me that he believed the current intifada would last at least three years. As a leader in the post-Arafat era, his popularity remains high – much higher, in fact, than that of Muhammad Abbas, the newly-chosen leader of the PLO. Barghouti believed that international society would intervene in the current bloody conflict if Palestinians could continue to fight against Israeli oppression for another three years. However, the Bush administration’s embrace of a US policy of unilateral support for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has hampered any hope of international intervention.

Inside Mukata

While Marwan Barghouti has spent the last two years in an Israeli jail, Yasser Arafat passed the same period in his virtual jail of the Mukata compound. When I stepped inside the compound, I found much of the building destroyed or demolished by repeated Israeli attacks. Since the end of 2001, Sharon has ordered military operations against the compound, including attacks by tank and bulldozer. One security officer argued that the Palestinian people would prevail despite what he saw as Israeli attempts to humiliate and demoralize the PLO. It seemed that the basis of his stubborn belief was his loyalty to Arafat.

Zafir Al-Nobani, a close aide to Arafat and Representative Manager of the International Committee for Solidarity with Palestinian People, explained, “Whenever any serious attacks against the Israeli occupation forces happen, for example, Hamas suicide bombing breaks out, Sharon orders military retaliation against Mukata.” Ghassan Khatib, Minister of Labor in the Palestinian Authority, agreed and went further: "All we Palestinians have been suffering collective punishment due to the Israeli blockade policy." Nabil Aburdeni, an advisor and spokesman for Arafat, argued that Ariel Sharon's aggressive policy against Arafat’s PLO was part of a strategy to buy more time in order to further enlarge settlements inside the occupied territory.

Mr. Aburdeni arranged my interview with Arafat. As I understand it, since the outbreak of the second intifada, Arafat has not granted foreign journalists the privilege of even a 30-minute interview. The reason was simple; Arafat has been repeatedly disappointed with the foreign and especially the American media. Arafat assumed that western media was biased against him and had little understanding of the Palestinian cause for independence. Therefore, Arafat has usually met with foreign journalists in a collective fashion, or, in the case of an exclusive interview, has spoken very briefly. Even though I interviewed Arafat exclusively, I was no exception. Below is my interview with Arafat, which lasted for less than ten minutes.

“Where is the Berlin Wall now?”

JK: Since the outbreak of intifada, there have been many victims. Before coming here, I was in the Rafa refugee camp in southern Gaza. I met some of your Palestinian people who lost their family members and had their homes destroyed by the Israeli soldiers. What do you think about those facts?

YA: It is definitely a war crime. Big crime! Day and night, the Israeli military forces are killing innocent Palestinian people including children and women, and are destroying our holy land and vulnerable infrastructures, for example, cutting electricity and water service systems. They are now occupying more than 80 percent of Palestinian territory.

JK: Do you think the so-called road map for Palestinian independence in 2005 is now impossible to implement?

YA: Absolutely! Because of Ariel Sharon’s aggressive policy, the road map strikes a rock. As you know, the road map was based on the consensus among international society including the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and Russia. By attacking and killing our people, Ariel Sharon has escaped peaceful implementation of the road map. Basically, the Israeli government has ignored the Olso Peace Agreement signed by Mr. Yitzhak Rabin and I, as well as by the international community. The current Israeli government accepted the fanatical groups who assassinated Mr.Rabin in 1995 and now those fanatical groups are in power.

JK: President Bush has a close relationship with Ariel Sharon. He is repeatedly invited to the White House, but you were not. It presents a striking contrast to the former Clinton administration. What is your feeling?

YA: There is no doubt that the Bush administration has unilaterally supported Ariel Sharon’s regime. By blocking any UN resolution to criticize Israeli war crimes, the US has covered up the criminal activities perpetrated by Sharon in the West Bank and Gaza.

JK: In East Jerusalem, I could see the eight-meter high wall under construction. I would like to hear your personal opinion about that.

YA: Day and night, they are now constructing the separation wall. This wall will confiscate 58% of our land, and destroy our lives. As you know, even the International Court in Hague is critical of this separation wall. Let me ask one question. Where is the Berlin Wall now? It’s completely destroyed! Constructing the separation wall is not only illegal but also a major crime against humanity.

Controversial Hero in His Role

Arafat was one of the most controversial politicians of the 20th century. The Israeli right-wing, whom Arafat labeled as a “fanatical group” in our interview, views him as just another terrorist leader. From the Palestinian side, he has been admired as a national hero and freedom fighter. However, some in Gaza are extremely critical of Arafat. A local leader of Hamas, for example, condemned Arafat for forgetting his revolutionary ideas and compromising since the Oslo Accords in 1993. A doctor in the Shipa hospital in Gaza argued that, “Mr. Arafat became accustomed to sitting at a plush table, and forgot his past as a guerilla fighter in Lebanon at the beginning of the 1980s.”

A Palestinian journalist pointed out Arafat’s authoritarian posture, cronyism, and corrupt relations with his close aides. But one of those aides, when asked about corruption, refuted that such allegations stemmed mostly from Israeli propaganda and sought to undermine Arafat’s leadership. “Even if these allegations were true,” he said, “Arafat might have needed a slush fund diverted from the official account in order to help some Palestinian factions during intifada.”

There is, however, one decisive fact: even Palestinian critics against Arafat acknowledged him as a legendary national leader. Arafat succeeded in leading the Palestinian people up to the river of independence, but failed to lead them across it. Even though Arafat died on November 11, the cause of national liberation is still alive and being pursued by the next generation. Many people would undoubtedly agree with Nelson Mandela’s eulogy for Arafat: “Arafat was one of the outstanding freedom fighters of this generation, one who gave his entire life to the cause of the Palestinian people. We honor his memory.”

Jae Kim is a student in the PhD program in Political Science.