The guy being promoted as the great “moderate” hope of the Palestinians remembers his maximum leader quite fondly.
During the memorial, held at Abbas’ Mukataa compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian president said, “The path of the shahids – Arafat, George Habash (founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and (assassinated Hamas spiritual leader) Sheikh Ahmed Yassin – is the path that we cherish; it is aimed at upholding the Palestinians’ nationalist and sovereign resolutions.”
Elder of Ziyon notes that Abbas’s hankering for dead terrorists, is nothing unusual.
But Ynet also notes:
The memorial underscored the growing divisions between the West Bank and Gaza. The West Bank is ruled by Arafat’s successor, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Gaza is run by the Islamic militant Hamas which seized the territory in 2007.
You could say that. It was illegal to commemorate Arafat’s passing in Gaza.
The first event was scheduled for Monday in Rafah and was supposed to combine three issues: Arafat’s memory; a protest over the siege of Gaza and the closing of the border crossings; and support for rapprochement talks between Hamas and Fatah being held in Cairo. Officially, all the canceled demonstrations were not under Fatah auspices but were being arranged by a coordinating committee of all PLO member organizations. In any case, the organizers of the Rafah rally were summoned by the police, held for a few hours and then asked to sign a statement they would not organize any activities or they would be fined. Some signed and others refused. The organizations have canceled all their demonstrations, though Fatah made no official announcement.Printers were also ordered not to print any material related to Arafat or his pictures without approval.
When will the international Palestinian sympathizers start protesting this blatant effort to stifle the nationalist feelings of the Palestinians?
Other cherished memories of Arafat are at Israelly Cool, Elder of Ziyon, Scrapple Face (h/t Elder of Ziyon), and Boker Tov Boulder.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
Abbas is a Palestinian moderate, Soccerdad. Within the context of Palestinian politics he is, because the given value of “moderate” in this context is different than in, say, civilized societies.