Palestinians in East Jerusalem neighborhoods, West Bank villages and Gaza Strip refugee camps all rejoiced Wednesday morning as news came that Yasir Arafat had survived a desert plane crash.
Wherever Palestinians live, the initial doomsday atmosphere that had pervaded after word arrived that Arafat’s plane was lost was suddenly transformed into celebration as news came that the Palestine Liberation Organization leader was alive and well.
There was dancing in the streets of Ramallah; candy was thrown like confetti from rooftops.
But the joy was tempered by confrontations with Israeli troops, which resulted in at least 15 Palestinians shot.
The worst of the violence occurred in the Bureij, Mughazi and Shati refugee camps of the Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Force also placed curfews on several West Bank villages.
The short-lived crisis in the Palestinian community began when Arafat’s personal jet lost radio contact Tuesday evening, 15 minutes before it had been scheduled to land at Kufra air base in Libya. A Libyan radio report carried the news that the plane had suddenly disappeared from radar screens at 8:45 p.m. local time.
Arafat had been in the Sudan visiting Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, after having spent Sunday in Libya with Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
He had been scheduled to visit a Palestinian training camp near Sarah in southern Libya.
His plane was flying over the desert wastes of southeastern Libya, where a sandstorm was raging and had to make a forced landing.
Three members of the crew were reported to have died in the crash.
Arafat, able after some 12 hours to communicate with the PLO, reported he was bruised.
AN AURA OF MOURNING
All during the ordeal of not knowing what had happened to the PLO leader, the Mount of Olives home of Palestinian nationalist leader Faisal Husseini was a scene of half mourning and brisk activity.
Throngs had gathered outside hoping for news of Arafat while telephones rang constantly and fax machines spewed out sheets of queries, speculations and reports from all over the world.
An aura of gloom had pervaded talks between Husseini and Dr. Ma’adi Abdul Hadi. The two East Jerusalem intellectuals, who support Arafat’s Al Fatah faction of the PLO, had quietly discussed what tenor their official reaction should take in the event Arafat were pronounced dead.
Far away in Stockholm, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, spokeswoman for the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks with Israel, responded to reporters’ queries that if Arafat were dead it would be time to elect new leaders and institutions for the PLO.
On Tuesday night, she told Ted Koppel of ABC Television’s “Nightline” that a “collective decision” would have to be made. The Palestine National Council exists for that reason, she told Koppel, in response to his posing a worst-case scenario. Ashrawi was later reprimanded for speaking prematurely.
Then, In East Jerusalem, pained faces broke into broad smiles when the PLO representative in Paris, Ibrahim Souss, telephoned with the news that Arafat was safe, that his plane had been located less than 40 miles from the PLO base that had been his destination.
Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, another prominent member of the Palestinian negotiating team, broke the news to the activists, journalists and photographers in Husseini’s courtyard.
People embraced. Youths ran to the nearest stores and came back with bags full of candy.
“We were very concerned about our president,” Husseini said a few minutes later. “You have just seen how deeply the people love him.”
DEATH WOULD HAVE BEEN DESTABILIZING
Shortly before noon, Husseini turned up at the National Palace Hotel in East Jerusalem to deliver a brief speech expressing joy that Arafat was safe.
Arafat, 62, was declared president of the “State of Palestine” proclaimed in 1988 by the PNC, the PLO parliamentary body in exile.
In addition to genuine concern for his safety, the Palestinian community had feared political instability if he were dead.
The community is deeply divided between Husseini’s camp, which backs the ongoing peace process at almost any price, and his critics, who point to lack of progress in dialogue with Israel.
As long as Arafat sided with Husseini, his position prevailed. But had Arafat died, the moderates in the territories would have been left with no father figure, and internal strife could have escalated into violence.
But even with Arafat’s safety assured, there was no general euphoria. Schools were dismissed early, but the holiday atmosphere did not extend to stores and businesses.
Most people followed everyday routines. For a while, small groups of youths gathered on Saladin Street, East Jerusalem’s main street, chanting Palestinian nationalist slogans. But their main interest seemed to be to taunt the police, who did not intervene, even after one or two bottles were aimed at them.
There was hardly any reaction by Israel. Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Moshe Arens said no Israelis would mourn the still-missing Arafat, whom they consider nothing more than a terrorist.
U.S. DENIES GIVING ASSISTANCE
In Washington, the State Department had no official reaction to the news that Arafat had survived the crash. It also denied assisting in locating Arafat, despite the fact that the PLO thanked the United States for its help.
The PLO had requested help from the United States, Britain and France with satellite tracking of ground activity in the region where Arafat’s plane had last been seen.
But at her daily news briefing Wednesday, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said, “We were not involved in any efforts to locate the plane.”
The United States has “no relationship with the PLO,” she stressed. But she did not rule out other countries making use of U.S. satellites.
There was a report that former President Jimmy Carter had called the White House Situation Room to urge that Washington provide humanitarian assistance to locate Arafat. But his request had not been acted on when it was learned Arafat was alive.
(JTA correspondent Howard Rosenberg in Washington contributed to this report.)
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