Obituary -Yasser Arafat

[Englander]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1348450,00.html

David Hirst
Thursday November 11, 2004

>>From an early age, Muhammad Abdul Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini, the sixth child of a Palestinian spice, incense and grocery merchant, sensed that a high destiny awaited him. It did - but Yasser Arafat, who has died aged 75, assuredly earned it by his own endeavours too.

>>By the standard of lifelong, indefatigable, courageous dedication to a cause, he deserved the title of Mr Palestine that he held for a whole generation of his people's struggle. But by the standards of ultimate achievement, he didn't; rarely can a "liberator" have strayed further from the original ideals of "liberation".

>>Arafat was born in Cairo, where his father had settled for business reasons, but after the death of his mother, the four-year-old was packed off to Jerusalem to live with his uncle in a house by the Wailing Wall and al-Aqsa mosque.

>>The Zionists' passionate struggle to wrest exclusive control of the traditionally Muslim-administered Wall made these holy places an emotionally charged arena for the wider struggle for Palestine unfolding under British mandatory rule. Arafat witnessed anguished family debates about the country's future, and saw something of the "great rebellion", the armed uprising of a desperate and dispossessed peasantry which served as an inspiration for the later, equally unavailing "armed struggle" of his own making. <<


Yasser Arafat (Muhammad Abdul Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini), politician, born August 4 1929; died November 11 2004.

[Scurrilous]

1. List of dignitaries expected to attend Arafat's funeral

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/500542.html

<snip>

The following is a list of world leaders and dignitaries who are expected to attend the funeral:

AFGHANISTAN - Vice President Hedayat Amin Arsala

ARAB LEAGUE - Secretary-General Amr Moussa

AUSTRIA - Vice Chancellor Hubert Gorbach

BANGLADESH - President Iajuddin Ahmed

BELGIUM - Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, Development and Foreign Aid Minister Armand De Decker

BRAZIL - Cabinet Chief Jose Dirceu

BULGARIA - Foreign Minister Solomon Passy

CANADA - Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew

CHINA - Vice Premier Hui Liangyu

CYPRUS - Foreign Minister George Iakovou, Presidential envoy Vassos Lyssarides

DENMARK - Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller

EGYPT - President Hosni Mubarak

EUROPEAN COMMISSION - Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner-designate Louis Michel

EUROPEAN UNION - Foreign policy chief Javier Solana

FINLAND - Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja

FRANCE - Foreign Minister Michel Barnier

GERMANY - Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer

GREECE - Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis

INDONESIA - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

IRAN - Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi

IRELAND - Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern

JORDAN - King Abdullah

LEBANON - President Gen. Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Omar Karami, Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud

LUXEMBOURG - Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Jean Asselborn

NETHERLANDS - Foreign Minister Bernard Bot

NORWAY - Foreign Minister Jan Petersen

PAKISTAN - Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz

PORTUGAL - Foreign Minister Antonio Monteiro

ROMANIA - Presidential adviser Simona Miculescu

RUSSIA - State Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov

SLOVAKIA - Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan

SLOVENIA - Foreign Minister Ivo Vajgl

SOUTH AFRICA - President Thabo Mbeki

SOUTH KOREA - Former Foreign Minister Yoon Young-Kwan

SPAIN - Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos

SWEDEN - Prime Minister Goran Persson

SWITZERLAND - Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey

TUNISIA - President Zine el-Abdine Ben Ali

TURKEY - Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Speaker of the Federal National Council Mohammed Saeed al Kindi, Minister of Supreme Council Affairs Sheikh Fahim bin Sultan al-Qassimi

UNITED KINGDOM - Foreign Secretary Jack Straw

UNITED STATES - Assistant Secretary of State Williams Burns

YEMEN - President Ali Abdullah Sale

[cantwealljustgetalong]

2. send in the clowns...

second tier will do...