Arafat defiant on threat

Published April 25, 2004

RAMALLAH, April 24: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat responded defiantly on Saturday to new threats against his life by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, telling a crowd of supporters he would embrace "martyrdom".

"All of us are martyrs-in-the-waiting," Yasser Arafat said in the compound of his Muqata headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where some 4,000 people chanted they would sacrifice their "blood and souls" for the veteran leader.

But flashing a V-for-Victory sign, he vowed to continue to lead his people, declaring: "I want to tell Sharon and his gang that the mountain cannot be shaken by the wind."-Reuters

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