Palestinian president Yasser Arafat could not have chosen a better funeral than the one he had in the West Bank city of Ramallah. One can imagine him smiling down at the crowds, blowing kisses to the tens of thousands massing on the spot that his helicopter was to land on, and flashing victory signs amid a symphony of gunfire, spine-tingling chants and the wailing of police cars and ambulance sirens. Yasser Arafat passed away on November 11 at 4:30 am local Palestinian time at the Percy military hospital near Paris, France. The news of his death traveled quickly - and sadly - toward the Palestinian territories, where an entire nation was shocked to the news that their leader and symbol of hope and struggle had died. "I still can't believe Abu Ammar [Arafat's nom de guerre] has passed away," said Khalifa Al Sayegh, a university student and member of the Fatah youth movement. "He was our leader, mentor and father. How can we live after him?" he added before bursting into tears. An Egyptian helicopter flew Arafat from Egypt, where he had been given a military funeral, to Muqataa, the battered Ramallah compound in which Arafat had spent his last years under an Israeli siege. Tens of thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of journalists from around the world were waiting there. For almost 30 minutes the helicopter was unable to land due to the crowds that overflowed the helipad. The funeral that took place on November 12 embodied all that the Palestinian cause represented. It was the end not only of a president who had led his people - for good and for bad - for the past four decades, but also the end of an era.. In Gaza a large tent was raised outside Arafat's Gaza office, and thousands of mourners held a mock funeral that proceeded from the old Omari mosque in the heart of old Gaza City to the president's office. "It is an unforgettable moment for us and for the Palestinian people," Nicolas de Blois, a video journalist working in Gaza City, told the Middle East Times. When the helicopter finally landed in Ramallah, there was a sea of emotions among the crowd. Adel Abu Saa, a 26-year-old bank teller from Ramallah, said he felt relieved. "I was afraid Abu Ammar would not be brought back home. Now he can rest." But the most overwhelming emotion was grief, expressed by the tears that poured down like rain on that dry November day. "We lost our father, best friend, teacher and leader. It will never be the same without Abu Ammar," said Amneh Hassan, 56, a retired schoolteacher. Arafat had wanted to be laid to rest in Jerusalem. Nevertheless, among his mourners there was agreement that his wrecked compound in Muqataa - which had begun its life as a British mandate-era headquarters, passing through the hands of the Jordanians and Israelis as a jail until it became the Palestinian leader's own prison in the last years of his life - was a fitting burial site. The coffin was buried under a cluster of pine trees a few meters from the remains of what had been Arafat's offices until Israeli tanks smashed their way into Muqataa in 2002. The grave was hurriedly constructed out of white Jerusalem stone and black marble. At its head were planted two small olive trees, which were soon crushed by the masses that flooded Muqataa to touch the coffin. Palestinian leaders say that when, not if, East Jerusalem becomes the capital of their independent state they will rebury Arafat next to one of its holiest sites, the Al Aqsa Mosque. In the meantime, sack loads of earth from near the mosque were carried to Ramallah to line the grave. Following the burial, Palestinian Authority minister Qaddoura Fares spoke to the Middle East Times by telephone. "There was a global funeral for Arafat in Cairo and then there was a human and emotional farewell with feelings of loyalty, pain, sadness and love all at once," he said. "Arafat is not dead. He will live on in our hearts," he added.
Yasser Arafat: an embodiment of a nation
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