CAIRO, 19 April 2004 — There was jovial mood among the liberal crowd of Egyptian, Arab and foreign art-lovers at a cultural center in downtown Cairo Saturday night attending a concert by Algerian and Palestinian singers.
Then someone in the audience shouted: “People — they’ve assassinated Rantissi!” A shocked silence ensued.
A swift reaction from concert organizer followed. Basma Al-Husseini called on the audience to stand for a minute in silence to mourn the death of the leader of Hamas in Gaza. One woman sobbed. Foreigners stared, puzzled, until Al-Husseini explained in English what had happened.
Israel’s assassination of Abdelaziz Al-Rantissi sent yet another shockwave among Arabs, who only 26 days ago awoke to the news of the assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. It is not really Rantissi the Arabs mourned. Yassin was a much more revered and well-known figure. In fact, Egyptian editorials yesterday still referred to Israel’s assassination of Yassin.
What was shocking was the blatancy.
The assassination occurred three days after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with US President George W. Bush in Washington.
Bush endorsed Sharon’s “disengagement” plan from the Gaza Strip and waived the right of the return of Palestinian refugees to Israel and the recognition of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, prompting stunned Arab response.
Upon hearing news of Rantissi’s death, students from Al-Azhar University in Cairo staged a protest at their college grounds.
The Arabic news station Al-Jazeera aired angry street responses from Cairo, Rabat, Beirut and Damascus.
On the verge of breaking down in tears, a man in Cairo said he was willing to wrap himself in explosives “right now and kill as many Israelis as possible”.
Lebanese, Jordanian and Syrian newspaper editorials highlighted yesterday the suggestion of an American “green light” for Rantissi’s assassination.
A statement by the White House yesterday said Israel had “the right to defend itself from terrorist attacks”.
The Egyptian press was silent, with neither editorials nor cartoons dealing with the assassination.
The visit of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to France took the better part of front-page headlines on state-owned newspapers with reports of Rantissi’s assassination figuring below.
Mubarak was at Bush’s Crawford, Texas, ranch two days before the Bush-Sharon meeting.
In press statements after Bush’s support of the Israeli plan was declared, Mubarak said he was shocked and did not know Bush would make such a statement.
Arabs, however, are no longer disillusioned. A statement issued yesterday by a group of Islamist scholars in Jordan announced that it was a “religious violation” for Arab leaders to meet members of the American administration.
Although the announcement is not religiously binding as it does not take the form of a fatwa or religious ruling, the announcement reflects popular frustration of Arab leaders’ alliance with the US.
Despite regionwide official Arab condemnation of Israel’s assassination of Rantissi, none made reference to Israel’s closest ally, the US. Jordan’s King Abdallah, already in the US, is expected to meet with Bush on Wednesday.
