TYRE, Lebanon, 20 August 2003 — More than 7,000 Palestinian refugees demonstrated yesterday against the continuing Israeli Army siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the construction of a “racist” fence in the West Bank.
“Despite the siege, Arafat remains the decision-maker for the Palestinians,” chanted the protestors roaming the streets of the Rashidiyeh refugee camp near the southern port city of Tyre. “Lift the siege of our elected president Yasser,” they demanded.
“Destroy the wall, the symbol of the Israeli racism,” shouted the refugees who had flocked in from various camps in southern Lebanon.
Israel has besieged Arafat in his Ramallah headquarters since December 2001, except for a brief period of freedom last year, in an attempt to “neutralize” him politically. Rashidiyeh, home to 24,000 refugees, is led by Sultan Abul Aynayn, the personnal representative of Arafat in Lebanon and the head of the mainstream Fatah movement of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
The demonstration was attended by visiting Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, who made a brief statement “in the name of Abu Ammar,” or Arafat’s nom de guerre.
“The construction of the wall is a racist initiative which aims at dividing Palestinian land,” he said.
Shaath also reiterated assurances over the refugees’ rights to return home. “The future Palestinian state will also be for the diaspora. The refugees in Lebanon will have their place reserved just as the Palestinians who are in Nablus and Jerusalem,” he said.
A new dispute erupted on Saturday over the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel, with Israel categorically rejecting a claim by Shaath a day earlier the prospect was guaranteed in a US-backed peace plan.
