So in the Libyan fable it is told

That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,

Said, when he saw the fashioning of the shaft,

“With our own feathers, not by others’ hands,

Are we now smitten.”

— Aeschylus

THE Palestinians will mark the fifth death anniver sary of Yasser Arafat on November 11 with their future still bleak and with no leadership to pull them out of misery and hopelessness. Indeed, their 40 years of struggle to regain their basic rights and usurped territory appears to have been in vain.

They have demonstrated incredible determination and resoluteness in fighting out their enemies and offered unprecedented sacrifices, yet they see darkness on the horizon.

During his life, Arafat’s policies drew criticism, even cynicism, from both friends and foes alike. The disunity and isolation, which has been the fate of the Palestinians since his death as evident from the factional fights between Hamas and Fatah, reveals how critical his presence was to keep them united.

Despite serious setbacks and heavy odds, Arafat considered the dispossessed and besieged Palestinians at par with Israelis. Intifadah I and II presented Israel with the stark choice of either land or peace. Had the Arab states given full support to the Palestinians and/or put pressure on the US, the sacrifices would have borne fruit. Arafat died a frustrated man, but not a failed leader. The greatness of a leader is measured in terms of his commitment to the cause and determination to persevere in his objectives. In this respect, Arafat ranks among the great leaders of the last century.

Arafat not only gave a sense of dignity and identity to the Palestinian diaspora, he also proved that the Palestinians reckon no sacrifice too high in the achievement of their goals. He finally decided to opt for the peace process and signed the Oslo Accords in 1993. The great revolutionary turned into a votary of peace, and in the last decade of his life, carried on his mission for a peaceful negotiated settlement. He did not succeed, not for want of political will or courage but for the perfidy and arrogance of his adversaries.

There is no denying that Arafat made monumental mistakes that brought misery to his people, such as his support to Saddam during the Gulf War, which not only deprived him the support of the Arabs but also resulted in expulsion of almost half a million Palestinian workers from the Persian Gulf states. His refusal to accept the Camp David peace plan presented by President Clinton in the twilight of his presidency in 2000 was yet another misjudgment, which led to a cryptic remark by Abba Eban — “Arafat never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

Clinton, in the last months of his presidency, took the initiative of resolving the Palestinian issue. He called a summit of the two protagonists, Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat, on July 11, 1995. He presented his peace plan that envisaged return of 94 to 96 per cent of the West Bank, for a ‘non-militarised’ state of Palestine in return for giving up the absolute right of return. Arafat refused to compromise on the basic rights. In his biography “My Life,” Clinton bitterly called this a colossal mistake and wrote, “Perhaps Arafat simply could not make the final jump from revolutionary to statesman.”

The vicissitudes Arafat faced during his 40 years of struggle could have humbled anyone, but he displayed rare qualities of a survivor. He kept the PLO intact, and emerged from each crisis more determined to carry on his mission.

His leadership and policies have been the subject of severe criticism. History will, however, judge him in the context of the backdrop of his struggle, which Arafat explained as follows:

“Many people think that the cause of Palestine resembles that of Vietnam, Algeria or even South Africa. But although there is a resemblance in some aspects, there is some thing entirely unique about our cause … No other country has been confronted with a plan to liquidate its national identity as has happened in the case of Palestine, nor confronted a plan to empty a country of its people as has happened in the case of the Palestinian people. It goes beyond anything previously recorded in modern history.”

I was fortunate to have had quite a few encounters with Arafat, some in hospitable environments, others not so agreeable. But after each meeting, my respect for him increased. My first meeting with him was in Amman in 1970 where I was posted at the Pakistan Embassy.

On September 6, 1970, four international airliners were hijacked by Palestinians led by the legendary Laila Khaled, at a World War II airstrip in Jordan. Of the 600 passengers held hostage, 15 were Pakistani. I received instructions from Islamabad to negotiate their release, being then charge d’ affaires of our Embassy in Amman.

This was my first encounter with Yasser Arafat, lovingly called Abu Ammar by his compatriots.

From Amman, I was transferred to Beirut the following year, and the contacts were revived when the PLO shifted its headquarters to Beirut, where it stayed until 1982 when Israeli invasion forced them to exile in Tunis. My last contacts were during 1997-1999.

Arafat visited Cairo often to attend Arab League meetings, and as Ambassador of Pakistan I had frequent social occasions to meet him. Often we reminisced about the past. Arafat was a broken man, as neither the approach to peace in terms of the Oslo Accord succeeded, nor had the armed struggle borne fruit. He held Arab regimes partially responsible for their failure to put considerable pressure on the US.

Arafat’s struggle for return of the occupied territories and establishing a Palestinian state did not succeed either. But the tenacity and sincerity with which he persevered in his struggle has secured him the noblest niche in history.

The current state of Palestinian despair and fragmentation has been brilliantly summed up by British Foreign Secretary Miliband: “Palestinians feel cheated and abused. The grandiose peace promise is a scam … They talk with Israel but fear they are being robbed of that which they are supposed to be talking about. Palestinian people are losing faith in a fair settlement.”