Statement of the Israeli Communist Forum (17.11.2004)
The
death of Yasser Arafat and the continuing struggle of the Palestinian people
On November 11 Yasser Arafat passed away - the Palestinian president, Chairperson of the Palestinian Authority, leader of the PLO, the man who for decades led the Palestinian people’s struggle to be free of the occupation and gain independence, and who was the symbol of that struggle.
The world-wide interest in Arafat’s condition while he was ill and the massive participation in his funeral rites – including the participation of numerous public figures from all over the world – prove the falsity of the claims by those who hold power in Israel and their allies in the US. Arafat, described by these people as “not relevant", turned out to be the most relevant of leader in our region and a personality of a major worldwide importance.
It was Yasser Arafat who placed the Palestinian problem prominently on the international agenda, after a considerable time that it had been marginalized and obscured. For decades he struggled – under the most difficult conditions, and in constant risk of his life – to promote the Palestinian people’s struggle, to which he devoted his entire life.
It was Yasser Arafat who led the PLO to accepting correct and realistic positions, accepting the principle of two states for the two peoples and the creation of an independent Palestinian state side-by-side with Israel, in the borders of June 1967 including East Jerusalem.
Despite the very harsh international and local conditions in the past few years, Yasser Arafat – as was characteristic of most of his career – did not surrender to the dictates of the US and Israel, and refused to agree to offers implying the giving up of basic rights of the Palestinian people. Arafat’s unequivocal positions will constitute a fundamental guiding line which any future Palestinian leadership will have to take into consideration.
For all of these reasons, the Palestinian people gave Arafat their unstinting respect and affection. As was evident in the unprecedented massive participation in his funeral and the other events held to commemorate him.
The exact circumstances of Yasser Arafat’s death are not yet clear. What is clear, however, is that the government of Israel bears a central share of the responsibility for the conditions which led to his death. It was the government which for years made it impossible for him to leave the Muqata’a (Presidential Compound) where he endured severe hardship impairing his health.
We strongly condemn the campaign of defamation against Arafat, conducted against him in the very days when he was lying on his death-bed, and the declared intention of the government to open a worldwide campaign to besmirch his memory. We protest the government’s refusal to let Arafat be buried in Jerusalem – his final wish, which will indeed eventually come true.
We call upon the government of Israel to change fundamentally its policy towards the Palestinian people, and put an end to the policy of killings, oppression and destruction in the Occupied Territory. We call upon the government not to undertake unilateral steps, including with regard to the Gaza Disengagement (if at all there is an intention to actually implement it at any future date). Rather, all steps must be conducted in coordination with the Palestinian Authority. Only such a policy could make it possible to renew the negotiations for the comprehensive agreement – which is achievable only on the basis of withdrawal from all the Occupied Territories, creation of an independent Palestinian state side-by-side with Israel in the borders of June 1967, and a solution to the refugee problem on the basis of the relevant UN resolutions.
We will honour the memory of Yasser Arafat by continuing and extending the struggle for implementing the just national rights of the Arab Palestinian people. It was this struggle to which Arafat devoted his life, and whose success is in the supreme interest of this country’s two peoples – for only implementing these rights could free all the peoples of this region from the cycle of bloodshed and make possible the achievement of the yearned-for peace.