RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinians at home and abroad wept, waved flags and burned tires Thursday in an eruption of grief at the death of Yasser Arafat, the man they consider the father of their nation. The quick appointment of successors did little to dispel the huge question marks now hanging over Mideast peace efforts.
Although Arafat’s death at 75 led some world leaders to talk about the possibility of a new era, the outlook was also shadowed by fears of a chaotic transition and a strengthening of Islamic militants.
The burial arrangements in themselves showed how disrupted the region is. The international funeral was to be held in Egypt, because few Arab leaders would travel to Israeli-controlled Palestinian land; Arafat was to be buried in the West Bank town of Ramallah because Israel refused to approve interment in Jerusalem; and most mourners from the Gaza Strip would be barred from traveling across Israeli territory to Ramallah, a security official said.
Workers in Cairo scrambled to lay new carpet and mow the lawn at a small mosque near the airport where dozens of foreign dignitaries will honor the Palestinian leader in a modest ceremony this morning, before Arafat’s body is flown to Ramallah for a burial service.
Heads of state from countries including Jordan and South Africa were expected to attend, along with many foreign ministers.
In France, where Arafat died before dawn Thursday after 13 nights in a Paris military hospital, eight pallbearers carried his flag-draped coffin past an honor guard Thursday evening as a military band played the French and Palestinian national anthems and a Chopin funeral march.
Arafat’s widow, Suha, stifled sobs as the coffin was transferred from a French military helicopter to the official French airplane heading to Egypt.
Though it had been expected for several days as he fell into a coma, Arafat’s death stunned Palestinians and left them wondering who could possibly replace their leader of the last four decades.
Arafat had not anointed a successor, but within hours the Palestine Liberation Organization elected former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas to replace him as its new chief, virtually ensuring he takes over as Palestinian leader, at least for now.
The Palestinian legislature also swore in Speaker Rauhi Fattouh as caretaker president of the Palestinian Authority, the self-ruling power in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, though that position will likely have far less power than when Arafat held it. Fattouh is to serve for 60 days until elections can be held, though the law may be amended to allow parliament to choose the new president.
Thousands of Palestinians flooded the streets, many weeping and clutching Arafat’s photo. Even members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups, often critical of Arafat, mourned his death.
At Arafat’s battered Ramallah compound where he will be buried, flags flew at half staff. The radio played somber music, church bells in the partly Christian city rang out, and Quranic verses were played for hours over mosque loudspeakers.
Thursday evening, thousands of people came to a mourning tent outside Arafat’s seafront headquarters in Gaza to pay their respects.
“Yasser Arafat spent his life working for Palestine and we shall continue, we shall be that mountain that cannot be shaken by wind, as he always used to say,” said Nafez Azzam, a Gaza leader of the Islamic Jihad.
Safra Hassan gave birth to twin boys in Gaza a few hours after Arafat died and said she was naming them Yasser and Arafat. “I’m so proud that the name of Yasser Arafat will be in my house every day, just as the name of Yasser Arafat will be in every Palestinian house forever,” she said.
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