Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 11. november
2004 / Timeline November 11, 2004
Version 3.5
10. November 2004, 12. November 2004
11/11/2004
Våbenstilstand efter første verdenskrig,
1918.
11/11/2004
Yasser Arafat 1929-2004 / Mordechai Vanunu back to
prison
By: Adam Keller & Beate Zilversmidt
The Other Israel
Yasser Arafat 1929-2004
Enough has been said by enough people about Arafat's illness, which
led to his death, about who he was and what it will be like without
him. Let's allow our thoughts to go back to meeting him after his
arrival in Gaza, ten years ago.
A group of Israelis, Jews and Arabs on a welcoming visit, were
sitting waiting for him to enter the hall - on some back benches a
group of Palestinian women and children. When Arafat came in,
surrounded by a crowd of body-guards all much taller than him, we
first only saw glimpses of the kufiya on his head. But suddenly he
freed himself, his broad smile radiated happiness and hope, and he
started to shake hands with everybody - the backbenches first,
taking special care not to miss one child.
The language of the meeting was Arabic; among the Israeli Arabs
were some long-time friends, and the meeting was very spirited.
Arafat who himself seemed excited about having returned to the
beloved country, took care to mix in every sentence some English
words - for the Israelis who didn't speak Arabic. That meeting with
Arafat, our first, made us understand why this person, not
forgetting such details eben in a hectic situation, had succeeded
in keeping together a scattered nation .
Forty years Arafat survived like a Houdini; a master not only in
the art of physical survival, but also in acquiring popularity and
media attention, for himself and thereby for his nation.
On the other hand, his popular image as "The bad guy" was exploited
to the full in Israel and turned the period of his sickbed into a
quite disgusting media spectacle.
With the intensity of the media attention, one starts speculating:
was it pure coincidence that we heard of his being ill immediately
after the Knesset authorized the Gaza withdrawal? Sharon just told
the Palestinians: "We define until where we withdraw, there is no
partner" and immediately after that, the "no-partner" took the
stage by falling ill. And a week later from his Paris hospital bed
Arafat's last sign of life - his addressing Bush upon being
reelected, expressing the wish that the US Middle-East policy would
be revised. As if he didn't believe it himself, he then entered
into the coma from which he did not wake up anymore.
Now we are preparing tp join the Gush Shalom delegation to the
funeral. Yasser Arafat no longer will be there to surprise us. And
we all, the Palestinians and the Israeli peace seekers will have to
cope without him.
On the day of Arafat's death Mordechai Vanunu goes back to
prison.
As if to fit itself into the quest for coincidence, it was this
morning, in the first hours after the death of Arafat became
official, that thirty armed police of the Special Investigations
Unit entered the compound of the Anglican Church in East Jerusalem,
where Vanunu had been staying since his release from prison, and
detained the recently released nuclear whistleblower. (They had
ignored the request of Bishof Riah al-Assad to rid themselves of
their weapons before entering.)
The reason of the arrest according to Haaretz: "for questioning
related to an ongoing probe examining suspicions he leaked national
secrets and violated legal rulings since his release from
prison."
A country which cannot live without phantoms.
11/11/2004
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