JEDDAH/PARIS, 10 November 2004 — When Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, was transferred to Paris last Friday, many believed that he would get a chance either to receive proper medical care or, if his hour had struck, to pass away with dignity.
Sadly, the ailing man was transformed into a character in a tasteless political and financial soap opera starring his wife Suha.
Ever since she married Arafat a decade ago, Suha has been at the center of thinly disguised controversies among he Palestinians. Some saw her as the typical gold-digger, marrying Arafat, who is 35 years older, for fame and finance. Others have defended Suha as the idealist who wanted to marry the symbol of a cause that she had cherished since childhood.
As long as Suha’s behavior did not affect Palestinian politics, all that controversy was neither here or there. Suha and Arafat’s relations belonged to the private sphere that must be recognized for everyone.
In recent days, however, Suha has broken that rule by trying to dictate the course of events.
First, she erected a cordon sanitaire around her husband’s hospital room and forbade the French authorities from issuing the usual communiqués concerning a patient’s health. This led Yasser Abed-Rabbo, a close Arafat aide, to claim that Suha had turned the septuagenarian leader into a hostage.
Back in Ramallah, the Palestinian leadership did not know which way to turn. They decided to prepare for all eventualities and, by all accounts, showed exemplary discipline, unity and foresight.
They looked at the Basic Law, the Palestinian Constitution, and tried to apply its provisions concerning the leader’s absence or incapacitation. They decided to apply the rule that demands that the speaker of the Palestinian National Council (Parliament), the prime minister and the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) act together to establish whether or not the leader should be declared unable to perform his duties. Such a determination would then trigger constitutional mechanisms of choosing Arafat’s successor through elections.
Suha, however, saw things not through the prism of law and institutions but in terms of a family feud. According to reports she decided that her husband should keep his position even though he may be on a life-support machine for months if not years. “Even the ghost of Arafat is taller than those midgets,” she told her entourage the other day, referring to Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmad Qorei. Next, she started plotting to impose her choice as Arafat’s successor.
Sadly, some French quarters, who see Abbas and Qorei as Washington’s men, appear to have played along with Suha’s game.
Behind all this there is also the dirty battle over Arafat’s immense fortune. Suha wants most, if not all of it. She also wants her $500,000 a year salary as Palestine’s “First Lady” to continue even after Arafat’s death and until her daughter is 18.
All this sordid saga shows only one thing: The Palestinians need to liberate themselves from the tyranny of personal rule before they can be liberated from Israeli occupation. They need to build the institutions of democracy before they can seek the support of others for the creation of a Palestinian state.
