CAIRO, 13 November 2004 — Newspapers across the Arab world yesterday saluted Yasser Arafat as the warrior and symbol of the Palestinian cause, mourned his death but said the state of Palestine for which he battled was bigger than any single leader.
“Gone is the symbol of Palestinian struggle”, said the Egyptian opposition Al-Wafd daily, looking back and showing Arafat wearing his trademark-checkered keffiyeh.
Looking ahead, an editorial in Al-Akhbar said: “The destiny and future of dear Palestine is not tied to any particular symbol or leader, but with the will and determination of the great Arab people.”
Throughout the Middle East, including in Syria whose relations with Arafat had been cool for over a decade, newspapers hailed his “final journey” to burial in the West Bank following his death early on Thursday.
With Syrian President Bashar Assad attending Arafat’s funeral ceremony in Cairo, the official Ath-Thawra newspaper praised the Palestinian leader as “a defender of Palestinian rights” and called on the Palestinians to unite.
“For more than four decades Arafat has united most of the Palestinian people around him. He has sacrificed his life defending the violated rights of his people,” said the paper, the only one to publish in Syria on Fridays.
In Lebanon, which sheltered Arafat until he was forced out by Israeli forces in 1982, Beirut dailies hailed him as the “last Arab giant” figure, hoping his successors would pursue his fight for a Palestinian state.
“Great figures do not die because they set the base for the future ... and Yasser Arafat might be the last giant of the Arabs and this era,” said the front-page editorial of Gibran Tueini, publisher of the leading An Nahar.
That paper, like others, saw his passing as opening a new page which would be a challenge for his companions who divided up his powers, vowing to pursue the process until “a Palestinian state is established and the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Nativity Church are set free.”
