07:46 PM
Saturday, November 11, 2023
Books – Mahmoud Al-Toukhi
His image is still present and not absent, when he held an olive branch, representing peace, in one hand, and his rifle in the other, a symbol of struggle and resistance. He gave the world leaders the choice in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly, saying: “I came to you, Mr. President, with the olive branch in my hand, and with the revolutionary’s rifle in my hand.” The other, so do not let the green branch fall from my hand.”
19 years have passed since the passing of the revolutionary Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, or as it was stated in official records, “Muhammad Abd al-Raouf Arafat, the Role Model,” while the British Encyclopedia called him “Abd al-Rahman Raouf, the Role Model,” or as he liked to call him “Abu Ammar,” after the companion Ammar bin Yasser. .
A few steps away from the Buraq Wall, Abu Ammar was born on August 4, 1929 in the city of Jerusalem, where he lived his childhood, among his six siblings and members of the Al-Husseini family to which he belongs, following the successive uprisings in the wake of the British Mandate.
His upbringing was not like other people of similar age to him. The events he experienced at the beginning of the Palestinian issue formed the largest part of his awareness and interests, which were later focused on politics and military affairs, until he came to Egypt with his father to work in the food trade.
When his structure strengthened and he became young, he joined the Palestinian National Movement affiliated with the “Palestine Students Union” in 1944, of which he became its president between the years 1953 and 1968, leading the demonstrations against the English colonialism of Egypt.
However, despite his distance from the occupied territories, he was present in his role in smuggling weapons and ammunition to the Palestinian revolutionaries, until his participation in the Arab-Israeli war in 1948, and the fateful Nakba, so he moved with his family to Gaza and from there to Cairo again, and joined the Egyptian guerrilla groups in their operations. Against the British, in addition to studying engineering at King Fouad I University, currently in Cairo.
It would later be a meeting point with the leaders of the Egyptian revolution, who helped him accept the first batch of Palestinian officers from the Gaza Strip into the Egyptian Military College.
Then he joined the Egyptian army with the rank of reserve officer in the Corps of Military Engineers to clear mines in the city of Port Said, during the tripartite aggression against Egypt in 1956, until he graduated from his university and directed his earnings from working in the city of Mahalla al-Kubra to spend on the resistance, which was the first step in the Fatah movement’s project. Until he headed to Kuwait.
On October 10, 1959, Arafat met with some of the people who formed the first cell of the Fatah movement, in Kuwait, after which he fired the first shot announcing the establishment of the movement on New Year’s Day of 1965. “Fatah” and “Abu Ammar” topped newspaper headlines after the success of the operation.
As soon as the operations of the Fatah guerrillas continued, the occupation launched intense raids on their positions along the Jordan River, causing Arafat to say, “We feed our meat to the tanks’ chains, and we will not withdraw.”
In order for the Fourth Palestinian National Council to be held in Cairo, Arafat was appointed spokesman for the movement in April 1968, to participate in laying the foundations for the formation of the Palestine Liberation Organization, of which he became head of its Executive Committee in 1969.
During the Israeli aggression against Lebanon in 1982, Arafat led the battles from the city of Beirut against the occupation forces for 99 days, until they ended with an international agreement requiring his departure from the city.
Arafat signed, with then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Oslo Declaration of Principles agreement at the White House in 1993, and was then elected President of the Palestinian National Authority in general elections.
When the Camp David negotiations failed, the occupation forces besieged him in his headquarters for two years and prevented him from leaving the house, after the Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out on charges of leading it. During which he was detained several times, as a result of which his health condition deteriorated. He was transferred to a hospital in France, where he breathed his last in November 11, 2004.
His wife later stated that he died of poisoning, as confirmed by a report by forensic experts in Switzerland, but Russian specialists said in 2013 that he died of natural causes, after examining his remains.
The post first appeared on www.masrawy.com
