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Journalism of Courage
Even as Israeli forces raided the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday to root out a group of militants, triggering fighting in which a soldier, a Palestinian policeman and a Hamas militant were killed, Yasser Arafat was back in public view proclaiming his survival a victory for the Palestinian people.
He looked tired but sounded triumphant, seeing the sunlight after 34 days under siege, and his first stop on Thursday was at a hospital, to exhort wounded fighters to be strong and recover soon, sources said.
He toured the ruins of the Education Ministry, the wreckage of the Parliament building, a ransacked cultural centre and then a Protestant convent, before returning to the cheering crowd awaiting him outside his compound.
Standing on the floorboard of a borrowed black Mercedes, flanked by green-camouflaged security officers waving assault rifles in the air, 72-year-old Arafat joined hundreds of supporters making victory signs with their hands, and singing, ‘‘Our souls, our blood is for Palestine.’’
The Palestinian leader has the task of rebuilding a government and an infrastructure crippled by the Israeli army. He has to prevent Israeli military action like that on Friday in which Israeli troops stormed a building near Nablus’s old quarter.
He will have to rein in extremist groups such as Hamas which have vowed to launch a new wave of suicide attacks within days. To satisfy the US, he will have to resume talks with Israel leading to a formal ceasefire and an eventual peace settlement.
Arafat faces many internal challenges as well. Even as residents poured into the streets to greet him, some privately complained that he had sold out by turning over six men wanted by Israel to American and British jailers in order to win his freedom.
‘‘This is not victory,’’ said a 23-year-old Palestinian policeman, recovering from three bullet wounds at Ramallah Government Hospital, speaking after shaking Arafat’s hand. ‘‘Victory is when we have our own land and we can move freely. I feel like I fought for nothing.’’
Just the same, the Palestinian leader played the perfect role of a politician. He waved to children, plastered over bullet holes on a police station wall and prayed over the graves of combatants buried in a hospital parking lot. ‘‘The more destruction I see, the stronger I get,’’ he told mediapersons.
