Remembering
Arafat
By Ihsan Aslam
Oxford, UK
Yasser Arafat is gone. The
man who came to symbolize Palestinian struggle
was in many ways the ‘sole spokesman’
of the Palestinians the way Muhammad Ali
Jinnah was for Pakistan. It is a coincidence that
he passed away on November 11, Remembrance Day
— when those who died during the two World
Wars are remembered — with a two-minute
silence at 11 am. Palestinians are now likely
to associate the day in their own way with the
memory of a leader who dedicated his life to their
cause.
There will be much formal comment on Arafat and
the issue of Palestine over the coming days. I
believe, however, that it is personal recollections
that put flesh on the bones of these dry narratives.
There was Arafat the leader, but there was also
Arafat the man who left an impression on all those
who came into contact with him.
I am not among those who really knew Arafat (1929-2004),
but I did have the rare opportunity to meet him.
The encounter was so brief that the word “meeting”
seems an exaggeration. There was just a quick
handshake, “hello” and salaam. Nothing
of any significance. But it is a memory that (through
this column) enters the domain of public history.
My good friend Kamran Shafi, who was then Pakistan’s
Information Minister in London — very able
and assertive, he was, too — had invited
me to join the Pakistani reception held at a posh
London hotel in honor of the Palestinian leader
in June 5, 1996. I remember bumping into the Labor
Party MP Gerald Kaufman and television newsreader
Zainab Badawi. Arafat was in his usual combat
uniform (minus the revolver) and the Palestinian
headscarf.
Arafat was a big man in terms of his political
stature, but it is the short and frail old m an
that I remember from the meeting. I was surprised
to see how unwell and exhausted he looked. I recall
thinking at the time that his end was near. Amazingly,
he was around for over eight more years. He wasn’t
a funny man, but I remember that I was amused
by his peculiar pronunciation.
What I heard, for example, as “Brother,
I want to sink you” was probably “Brother,
I want to thank you”.
He spoke, of course, about the Palestinian State
and his dream to be in Jerusalem. “We will
continue together, step by step, towards Al Quds
al Sharief,” he said, “towards the
Holy Jerusalem, capital of the independent Palestinian
State, where we will soon pray.” He acknowledged
that the peace process was passing through a “very
critical period” and hoped that it would
continue and the
Israeli government would honor the relevant agreements.
He also wished for the continuation of efforts
for the resolution of the Kashmir issue in the
spirit of the UN resolutions for the “sake
of Kashmir, Pakistan and India”. Mentioning
his close association with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,
he said he had himself coordinated talks between
“my brother Bhutto” and Indira Gandhi,
the then prime minister of India, on Kashmir on
the basis of UN resolutions.
Wajid Shamsul Hasan, who was the Pakistani High
Commissioner at the time, welcomed Arafat by also
touching on the burning issues of Palestine and
Kashmir. “Kashmir — a legacy of the
British partition plan for the subcontinent continues
to be the core issue between India and Pakistan”,
he said. He continued, “Like the
valiant
Palestinian people, the dauntless spirit of the
Kashmiri masses remains committed to the right
of self-determination” but that right “as
pledged to them by the United Nations and India’s
first prime minister, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru,
remains an elusive dream”.
All his life Arafat dreamt of Jerusalem and an
independent Palestine. While his desire to be
buried in Jerusalem has been frustrated by the
Israelis, the dream of a free Palestine lives
on.
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