Last update - 07:38 11/11/2004
Palestinians mourn for Arafat; Hamas, Islamic Jihad pay tribute
By Haaretz Service and Agencies
Palestine Liberation Organisation official Yasser Abed Rabbo announced a 40-day mourning period for Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat following the annoucement of his death on Thursday morning.
Palestinians reacted with tears and tributes to news of Arafat's death Thursday.
Palestinian flags at Arafat's battered compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah were lowered to half staff. Television broadcast excerpts from the Koran with a picture of Arafat in the background.
In the Gaza Strip, mosques blared Koranic verses and children burned tires on the main streets, covering the skies in black smoke. People pasted posters of Arafat on building walls.
"He closed his eyes and his big heart stopped. He left for God but he is still among this great people," said senior Arafat aide Tayeb Abdel Rahim, who broke into tears as he announced Arafat's death.
Arafat, who led the Palestinian people through four decades, died at a Paris hospital early Thursday. He had been in a coma for a week.
"We will follow in your footsteps and we will continue in your line," Abdel Rahim told reporters at Arafat's Ramallah headquarters.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad expressed sorrow over Arafat's death and paid tribute.
Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas's spokesman in Gaza, called on the group's supporters to honor Arafat and work toward national unity.
"We lost by his death one of our great symbols and one of the main focuses of our national struggle and identity," Abu Zuhri told The Associated Press.
Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza Nafez Azzam said "with hearts full of belief in God's will we mourn President Yasser Arafat who was a great leader for the Palestinian people."
"This is a time for unity, steadfastness. We are all one people fighting for our freedom and to liberate our land," said top Islamic Jihad leader Mohammad Al-Hindi. "We are looking to see a smooth transfer of authority within Fatah at this stage and later all issues must be discussed including the formation of a unified national leadership or an emergency leadership formed up by all factions."
Former Palestinian security minister Mohammad Dahlan confirmed there would be a "smooth transfer of President Arafat's responsibilities."
Blaming Arafat for global terrorism and the failure to achieve Middle East peace, Justice Minister Yosef Lapid expressed hope Thursday that a new Palestinian leadership would put down militant groups and negotiate with Israel.
Lapid: I hated Arafat for deaths of Israelis
The comments by Justice Minister Yosef Lapid marked the first reaction by a top Israeli official to Arafat's death at a French hospital before dawn Thursday.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's aides declined comment.
Lapid focused on Arafat's image in Israel as a terrorist.
"I hated him for the deaths of Israelis ... I hated him for not allowing the peace process ... to move forward," Lapid told Israel Radio.
"It is one of the tragedies of the world that he didn't understand that the terror that began here would spread to the entire world," he added.
President Moshe Katsav said he hopes the Palestinians will recover swiftly from their grief and will elect a new and trustworthy leadership that will be able to act to their benefit.
Katsav said he hopes a new Palestinian leadership can put an end to violence and turn a new page in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Chirac: Arafat was man of courage
French President Jacques Chirac, confirming Yasser Arafat's death, hailed the Palestinian leader on Thursday as a man of courage and conviction who embodied the Palestinian struggle for a state.
"It is with emotion that I have just learnt of the death of President Yasser Arafat, the first elected president of the Palestinian Authority," Chirac said in a written statement. "I offer my very sincere condolences to his family and to people close to him."
Chirac urged the international community to persevere with efforts to ensure an international peace plan known as the road map is put into effect in the Middle East.
U.S. President George W. Bush's offered his condolences to the Palestinian people on the death of Arafat.
"The death of Yasser Arafat is a significant moment in Palestinian history," Bush said in a statement issued by the White House. "For the Palestinian people, we hope that the future will bring peace and the fulfillment of their aspirations for an independent, democratic Palestine that is at peace with its neighbors. During the period of transition that is ahead, we urge all in the region and throughout the world to join in helping make progress toward these goals and toward the ultimate goal of peace."
The State Department said Wednesday that Israel must implement Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan despite the death of Arafat.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was "deeply moved" by the death of Palestinian Arafat and urged renewed efforts by the Palestinians and the Israelis to reach peace, a spokesman said late on Wednesday.
"For nearly four decades, [Arafat] expressed and symbolized in his person the national aspirations of the Palestinian people," spokesman Fred Eckhard said in a statement on Annan's behalf.
The spokesman said Arafat would be remembered for leading the Palestinians in a "giant step" toward peace in signing the Oslo accords in 1993 and, "It is tragic that he did not live to see it fulfilled."
Annan expressed his condolences to Arafat's family and to the Palestinian people.
History will judge Arafat harshly because of his failure to embrace a proposed peace deal with Israel, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday.
"I think if Arafat had grabbed hold of that opportunity [made by the then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak] in the dying days of the Clinton administration then the path of things in the Middle East may have been smoother," Howard told Melbourne radio 3AW early Thursday.
Earlier this week, Howard also ruled out attending Arafat's funeral, saying an Australian government representative would go instead.