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RAMALLAH, Nov 12: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was laid to rest on Friday in frenzied scenes of grief and gunfire at the Ramallah compound where he spent his final years encircled by the Israeli army.
An uncontrollable crush of mourners forced a hasty burial in the finale to a tumultuous life as the trailblazer of Palestinian nationalism. It was the end of an era for Israelis and Palestinians locked for decades in a conflict of which Arafat was one of the most recognized symbols.
Arafat, a former guerilla who became a Third World liberation icon and won a Nobel Peace Prize only to sink into renewed conflict with Israel, died at the age of 75 in a French hospital on Thursday of an undetermined illness.
Amid scenes of frenzied mourning, soil brought from the site of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque was poured over Arafat's casket. A Palestinian flag and a black and white headdress, his trademark, were placed on the tomb of black and white marble.
Arafat was buried in a concrete coffin lowered into a tree-shaded grave on the marble platform. Religious leaders said the tomb was designed so that Arafat's remains could one day be moved to Jerusalem - as he had wished.
Israel had ruled out a grave in the holy city, calculating this would strengthen Palestinian claims to the part of the city it captured in the 1967 war and annexed in a move not recognized internationally.
"With our blood and soul we redeem you, Abu Ammar," the crowd chanted, using the nom de guerre of their leader who fought for decades for a Palestinian state. Israel put its forces on high alert over fears that Palestinian militants would try to steal centre-stage. Militants in Arafat's own Fatah movement vowed further anti-Israel attacks.
An Egyptian helicopter flew Arafat's coffin from the Egyptian capital Cairo, where a funeral service was held earlier in the day, to his Muqata headquarters in Ramallah. The aircraft was quickly engulfed by a surging crowd of thousands chanting Arafat's name.
Scores of militants in Arafat's Fatah nationalist movement sprayed the air with automatic weapons fire as the helicopter alighted and crowds swarmed around it. "We will sacrifice our blood and souls to redeem you, oh Abu Ammar," they chanted and "Yasser, Yasser", clapping their hands rhythmically.
Palestinian officials travelling with the coffin appeared at the helicopter door and pleaded for throngs to disperse. "I was in shock, I did not expect what happened. I expected to see, you know, a procession of guards of honour, as the president (Arafat) would have loved to see, with music and so on," Palestinian minister Saeb Erekat said.
After a half hour of indecision, security men squeezed Arafat's coffin out of the helicopter and ploughed into a jostling sea of people trying to touch the flag-draped casket.
The coffin was then hoisted on to a jeep and security men clutched it frantically to prevent it slipping off into the crowd. Mourners clamoured for one last sight of Arafat, holding up portraits of him and imploring, "Don't go, stay with us".
"Until now, I could not believe Abu Ammar had died. I cannot imagine Palestine without him. It's going to be very hard," said Deya Jamal, 19, a student. "You will stay in our hearts, leader of the revolution and symbol of the resistance," said a caption on an Arafat poster.
Nine Palestinians were wounded by shots fired by the security forces. Medics said hundreds were treated after fainting or for minor injuries during the crush. Gunmen loosing volleys above the crowd vowed revenge on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who refused to deal with Arafat and is pursuing a unilateral plan that would strip Palestinians of West Bank land they want for a viable state.
Many Palestinians who might have come from elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza Strip could not because Israeli troops tightened controls around Palestinian cities, citing a possible threat of militant attacks linked to the burial.
The frenzy scuttled plans to have his body lie in state or conduct an honour guard. In the end, only a small clutch of beleaguered senior officials and security officials in a tight circle saw his casket lowered into a black marble grave.
They piled colourful wreaths and flowers on top. Security men tried to fire a farewell salute but the shots came out wildly as mourners behind them jostled in vain for a glimpse. "He was buried ahead of time because of the emotion of the crowd. We had no choice," a senior Palestinian official said.
DIPLOMATIC FEELERS: Within hours of his burial, the new Palestinian leadership appeared to put out its first diplomatic feelers. "We want peace," Palestinian minister Saeb Erekat told Israeli television, appealing to the Jewish state to pull back troops from West Bank cities to allow elections for Arafat's successor.
Israel reoccupied much of the West Bank in 2002 after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings and has vowed to stay until Palestinians crack down on militants behind such attacks.
FUNERAL: The spontaneity in Ramallah was in high contrast to a funeral earlier at a Cairo airbase, where the public was kept away and even some world leaders were shut out by mistake by overzealous Egyptian guards.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, accompanied by leaders including Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar al Assad, led the mourners in Cairo.
Arafat's widow Suha, who had lived apart from him for the last few years of his life, watched the procession from a black car which drove alongside. Accompanied by their nine-year-old daughter Zahwa, Suha wept at the airbase.
AMERICAN SLIGHT: The United States sent a second-ranking State Department official, Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, to the Cairo ceremony in a slight attesting to its boycott of Arafat.
President Bush however appeared to take a more positive tone during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Washington. "I believe we've got a great chance to establish a Palestinian state and I'm prepared over the next four years to spend the capital of the United States to establish such a state," Mr Bush said.
Israel dispatched no one at all to the ceremonies for Arafat. "I do not think we should send a representative to the funeral of somebody who killed thousands of our people," Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said.
Israeli television stations broadcast wall-to-wall coverage of Arafat's last rites in Cairo and Ramallah, but most Israelis were unmoved by the final chapter of a man they reviled as a "master terrorist".
Israeli forces surrounding Ramallah had effectively confined Arafat to the Muqata, battered by Israeli raids after suicide bombings in the Jewish state, for the past three years until he fell seriously ill two weeks ago and was airlifted to Paris.
HOPES AND FEARS: Palestinians have named a collective leadership comprising mainly veteran moderates from Arafat's circle, reviving world hopes of a return to peacemaking.
But his interim successors will be challenged by a popular younger militant generation fed up with moderation in dealings with Israel, raising concern of a power vacuum that could trump any diplomacy in the near term.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said it could be a "turning point" for peace if Arafat's successors ended "violence". But Mr Sharon also said he would pursue a unilateral plan to quit Gaza and keep much of the West Bank. -Reuters/AFP
Hamas leader attends funeral
CAIRO: Israel's most wanted man, Khaled Meshaal, leader of the Hamas movement, made a rare public appearance at Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's funeral on Friday alongside US and other Western officials.
Khaled Meshaal rarely leaves his base in Damascus. The Hamas leader, who was himself the victim of an Israeli assassination attempt in Amman in 1997, has accused Israel of poisoning the Palestinian leader. He told Egypt's official Middle East News Agency that Arafat's death was "a premeditated Zionist murder." -AFP
