Arafat holds out vague promise of reform, including elections

By Hadeel Wahdan

Associated Press

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Yasser Arafat, who is under growing pressure at home and abroad to carry out reforms, acknowledged Wednesday that he has made mistakes and promised to restructure his government and hold elections. Yet he did not present a detailed plan and instead appealed for patience.

In his speech to parliament, Arafat also reiterated his opposition to attacks on Israeli civilians, saying such violence harms the Palestinian drive for statehood. Arafat also said he remained committed to a negotiated peace deal with Israel.

Legislators listened in silence, his words only acknowledged from time to time with a smattering of applause. Many of Arafat’s critics remained skeptical, noting that he has promised change in the past, including a campaign to weed out rampant corruption – without results.

“Maybe expectations were too high,” legislator Nabil Amr said of Arafat’s rambling and sometimes incoherent speech which was devoid of specifics. Amr had resigned last week from the Palestinian Cabinet in protest over what he said was Arafat’s stonewalling over growing demands for reform.

Arafat acknowledged that he has made mistakes, but heaped most of the blame for the current crisis on Israel, dedicating large parts of his speech to listing the damage caused during Israel’s six-week military offensive, which ended last week.

“Matters have been going in the wrong direction as a result of the Israeli government’s attitude,” Arafat said. “Our internal situation after the recent Israeli attacks needs a comprehensive review of all aspects of our life.”

Arafat called for “speedy preparations” to hold elections and restructure the Palestinian Authority to “fulfill the principle of a separation of powers.”

The Palestinian leader did not give details on elections, but Parliament Speaker Ahmed Qureia said he expected some voting, including in unions and political factions, to be held by the end of the year. Qureia said he did not know when a new parliament would be chosen; parliamentary elections were last held in 1996.

Arafat made no mention of a new contest for leadership of the Palestinian Authority, which he won by an overwhelming margin in 1996.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Israel’s parliament Tuesday that he would engage in peace talks with the Palestinians only after reforms have been made and all attacks on Israelis have stopped. Israel’s calls for Palestinian reform are largely seen as aimed at sidelining Arafat.

Also Tuesday, Arafat signed a law recognizing the independence of the judiciary, after ignoring the bill for 18 months. Arafat’s critics welcomed the step, but said much more was needed. “We don’t want independence of the legal system just on paper. We want it on the ground,” said legislator Hatem Abdel Kader.

Arafat has been widely criticized for his one-man rule, in which many decisions made by the judiciary were simply ignored by him and his security forces. Parliament in recent years passed a number of laws that disappeared in Arafat’s desk without ever being signed.

In the wake of the Israeli military operation, which caused great hardship to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, there has been growing dissatisfaction with Arafat and his aides, particularly Mohammed Rashid, an ethnic Kurd who is believed to control considerable secret funds.

Rashid was involved in negotiating the deals that led to Arafat’s release from 34 days of confinement by Israel earlier this month and the deportation of 13 Palestinian militiamen from Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity last week.

Arafat has been widely criticized for agreeing to send the men into exile – a first in the long conflict with Israel. “I tell you if there was a mistake, I take full responsibility,” Arafat said. “There are always mistakes in every movement.”

Arafat also reiterated his opposition to attacks on Israeli civilians. “Palestinian and Arabic public opinion have reached a point where they agree such operations do not serve our goals,” he said. “On the contrary it creates the hatred within the international community which was behind the creation of Israel.”

Arafat’s speech came on “Naqba Day,” Arabic for “catastrophe” – the uprooting of Palestinians during the 1948 war that erupted when Israel declared independence. In recent years, tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets for the commemorations, but Wednesday’s turnout was much smaller.

Many Palestinians saying the are too preoccupied with day-to-day difficulties.

“People are not interested anymore in words, demonstrations and clashes. They are looking how to get food for their children. They are looking how to stay alive,” said Monir Hilo, a 32-year-old teacher from Gaza. “We are living the Naqba everyday.”

About 400 people marched in the town of Rafah. Last year, 6,000 showed up.

Several hundred people marched from Shati refugee camp to nearby Gaza City. Hundreds of others marched through other areas of the town.

Hamas, which has carried out scores of attacks on Israelis, said it would use the occasion to underscore its commitment to pressing ahead with more bombings and shootings. “Today, the Palestinian people are reiterating their commitment to continuing along the road of holy war and resistance,” said a Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

Palestinian officials said Hamas has come under growing pressure from Saudi Arabia to halt suicide bombings in Israel. In the coming days, Hamas leaders are to hold talks in Cairo with Saudi officials, said two senior Palestinian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In Israel, meanwhile, the center-left Labor Party was split over competing peace plans, as it geared up for a leadership battle at a party conference Wednesday between the hawkish party chief, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and Haim Ramon, a charismatic legislator who proposes a unilateral withdrawal from nearly all of the West Bank and Gaza.

Ben-Eliezer, 65, and Ramon, 52, are both seeking the party’s nomination for the next general election, scheduled for November 2003.

Addressing a party convention under a banner that read, “Israel chooses separation for peace,” Ben-Eliezer warned: “Any border that we set for ourselves would be temporary and would perpetuate the conflict.” He favored a negotiated solution with “two states for two people, living side by side in peaceful coexistence, Israel and Palestine.”

Ramon was to speak after Ben-Eliezer and present his case that a negotiated solution is impossible now, leaving Israel no choice but to withdraw unilaterally from much of the West Bank.