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Higgins pays tribute to Arafat, founding figure of modern Palestine

Issued : Thursday 11 November, 2004

Responding to the death of Yasser Arafat, Labour Foreign Affairs Spokesman Michael D Higgins TD said his historic achievement will be to have held together a disparate coalition of groups under the umbrella of the PLO and to have transformed that group into a recognised political entity.

“After the 1967 War, his achievement in organising a demoralised Palestinian people had as its crowning moment his address to the United Nations General Assembly in 1974. From that moment on, the struggle of the Palestinian people had international recognition.

“Later, as many different countries came to recognise the PLO, it became clear that Yasser Arafat would be recognised as the symbol of the Palestinian people’s struggle.

“In later years he has been a virtual prisoner in Ramallah, spending most of his time under house arrest. The refusal of Ariel Sharon, supported by President George Bush, to negotiate with Yasser Arafat as the representative of the Palestinian people had the effect of stalling the peace process and led to international condemnation.

“The contradiction of Arafat’s being kept under house arrest, being deprived of resources, and yet at the same time being required to exercise control over disparate militant groups involved in attacks on Israeli civilians, was not lost on the international community.

“His critics will stress his slowness to deal with the findings as to corruption among elements of the Palestinian Authority, and his alleged autocratic style of leadership. Nevertheless, he will be seen as the uniting figure of Palestinians in their struggle, the iconic figure around whom different groups organised, the person who established the Palestinian struggle internationally, and undoubtedly the major founding figure of a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian state”, he added.