Jul. 26, 2004 15:05 | Updated Jul. 27, 2004 11:06 Calls in the Arab media for Arafat to step aside By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Editors, writers, and political commentators throughout the Arab world have stepped up their calls on Arafat to step aside, holding him responsible for widespread corruption and disasters that have plagued the Palestinians over the past three decades.
Dr. Ibrahim Hamami, a Palestinian writer living in London, has joined the chorus of Arafat critics in one of the most scathing attacks yet on the PA chairman.
Hamami, in an open letter to Arafat published on the Palestinian Web site Falasteen, urged Arafat to pack his bags and leave together with all his "corrupt cronies."
"For more than three decades you have treated us as if we were a flock of sheep," he wrote. "You think that you are able to deal with the Palestinian people in the same way as you do with your corrupt cronies – whom you treat as shoes that you can wear or take off whenever you wish."
Hamami said Arafat's "disastrous" policies have led the Palestinians from one catastrophe to another. "Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed in Lebanon and Jordan and now in Palestine because of your systematic corruption ever since you came to power in 1968," he added, addressing Arafat. (and no UN resolutions to protect them? You know why? because it was Arabs killing Arabs. That's Kosher according to the UN.......Snooker)
He also pointed out that Arafat was responsible for the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Arab countries because of his "idiotic" policies – a reference to Arafat's support for Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
"The solution is simple and face-saving for all," the Palestinian writer concluded. "You must release the people from your grip and corrupt authority. The solution is that you pack your bags and leave together with all the corrupt officials. Go anywhere you choose – Egypt, Tunis, or Tel Aviv, anywhere. Just go, go, go!"
Hanan Asharawi: Arafat should end his 'one-man show'
Veteran Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi called on Yasser Arafat to end his "one-man show" in the PA and warned of more unrest in Gaza as weapons flow into the troubled strip, reported Reuters Monday.
"As long as he controls the security forces he is breaking the fundamental law," Ashrawi, a prominent Palestinian Christian, said in an interview in the Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick.
"We should put this one-man-show behind us," Ashrawi said. "Instead of talking about (individual) people, we should at last be talking about institutions and laws."
Arafat should not, however, be solely blamed for corruption and poor transparency, Ashrawi said.
"The prime minister cannot accept office, do nothing, and then blame it all on Arafat," she said in an apparent reference to Ahmed Qurie, the Palestinian prime minister who handed in a letter of resignation as part of his a power struggle with Arafat over the pace of reforms and control of security.
Ashrawi said she expected further unrest in coming days.
"If this will become a civil war, I don't know. There are rumors of high weapon sales in Gaza and even in the West Bank. This is very worrying."
