Flashback 11/11/2004: Arafat

A lot of people have conflicting views abt Yasser Arafat. I tend to view him as a good man. A man who looked to change the history of his people. He followed old rues and many restrictions were placed on him, but he embraced it all, and he moved forward constantly, the idea of some movement took hold in the psyche, Palestinians found a voice, indeed, many Arabs found a voice.

It is not easy to live in a small room for 3 years under seige by israeli tanks. It is not easy to fight to the top and lead a movement while everything keeps crumbling around you, both politically and literally. It is not mere men who can acheive these feats. These are leaders, men of courage and resolve. Men who can make a whole generation believe in a cause for freedom, who symbolise freedom and the struggle that goes with it, a struggle that corrupts you, tests you and, asks for nothing less than you risking your life day in day out. This is the greatness of Arafat, this was the greatness of many leaders.

He did much that was wrong, but if you are a Palestinian sympathiser, you have to realise that nothing, nothing that has been offered to the Palestinians up till now, is fair compensation for what they have lost. Each and every deal that has been considered, has this flaw in it, it has nothing to offer Palestine as a state. The mere fact that a state exists however big does not matter, what is at issue here is that state has to have resources to keep itself alive, to be able to grow its economy and have a base of subsistence. The only subsistence avaialable widely to Palestinians is farming. The only other option is working in israeli workshops etc., so that usually leaves a small industry, agriculture, as the main form of income. Now if you consider that even this land, as we speak is being annexxed by Israel under the guise of the 'security' wall, you start to understand everything Israel is doing as systematic and calculated.

Arafat was a good man, only after 9/11 have things gotten so worse, Israel has unleashed hell onto the palestinians under the wings of america, and palestinians' voices have been silenced by the call of war on terrorists. i'm rambling now. may god exalt him for his virtues and forgive him for his faults. lest we forget the struggles of the past, we must spur on this revolution to afford our children the luxury of such thoughts. Ameen, Summah Ameen.