Ailing Arafat
We could manage to get a glimpse of his face on the TV screen as he was boarding a helicopter from Ramallah. He looked shattered and tired. He got out of his compound for the first time in the last two and half years. He is a president by all his grace and popularity, and by far the most unfortunate leader of a country who lives like a prisoner in his own motherland. The Israeli authorities claim audaciously that it is their sheer generosity that Arafat is still alive and not being haunted like many Hamas leaders or innocent Palestinians.
The fighting in the occupied land that has been going on since decades has cost lives of thousands of Palestinians. This fight for survival has given birth to many Islamic guerrilla groups which are tagged as terrorists by the US and Israel. The arc of evil formed by these two countries' administrations have dislocated the Palestinians from their own land.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. This crisis has seen the emergence of a gifted and popular leader like Yasser Arafat. His stride towards a peaceful Palestine gave us a new hope. We started feeling optimistic that some day peace would be established in the West Bank. In our dreams we saw boys and girls chanting in joy in Gaza and West Bank...a mother who lost her son in the fighting finally has a smile in her face thinking that no mother would lose her son any more.
But if anything happens to Arafat ...if he does not come back to Ramallah.... the whole peace process is likely to be lost in the oblivion. Fighting is likely to break out all over Palestine. Fearing this hundreds of his supporters gathered at Ramallah to see him off ...chanting at the top of their voices...we love you Arafat.
Let us realise that this is an impending crisis for the Muslim world. Arafat must come back to Palestine....for the sake of peace, for the sake of humanity and for the Muslim world. Let us hold our hands together and pray for his quick recovery. In every blink of our eyes...in every bit of our hearts...let's wish that Arafat comes back to Ramallah and peace finally makes its way into Palestine.