Jerusalem Post

Arafat blames Israel for Husseini's death

By Lamia Lahoud, David Rudge, and News Agencies

BRUSSELS (June 1) - Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat yesterday blamed Israel for the death of leading Palestinian politician Faisal Husseini, claiming that his fatal heart attack in Kuwait on Wednesday night was caused by tear gas fired at him and Arab MKs during a May 15 Nakba Day protest.

"There is no doubt that the [tear gas] canisters thrown at him by the Israeli forces led to his death," Arafat told reporters in Belgium. "It is a great loss for the Palestinian people."

He said the death of Husseini, who was the PLO representative in Jerusalem and a PA minister, should increase determination to re-establish a just peace in the Middle East.

Arafat cut short his European tour in order to be present when Husseini's body was brought back for burial.

Husseini, who died in his Kuwaiti hotel room while on a mission for the PA, is to be buried in Jerusalem today. He was 60. He had been considered a possible successor to Arafat.

A Palestinian minister said Husseini had complained a week ago that he felt ill after attending the demonstration.

Palestinian sources at Orient House said Husseini had suffered from asthma and high blood pressure and had been under stress due to the current violence and due to attacks leveled at him and the PLO by the Kuwaiti press and a Kuwaiti parliamentarian on Wednesday.

Several MKs and peace organizations expressed their condolences, and President Moshe Katsav told Israeli reporters in Washington, "I share in the family's sadness."

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, his voice breaking, said Husseini's death is "a great loss, not only for Palestine, but for the whole Arab world."

Husseini was a frequent guest on Israeli television and radio talk shows, explaining the Palestinian point of view. Meron Benvenisti, a former deputy mayor of Jerusalem and longtime friend of Husseini, described him as "a man who had his family's sense of pride but was someone we could talk with and who understood us better than anyone else... If there was a man that you could find a shared language with, it was Faisal Husseini."

He is to be buried in the Muslim cemetery on the Temple Mount following midday prayers. He will be interred alongside his father, Abdel Khader Husseini, who was killed fighting Israeli forces during the 1948 War of Independence.

Yesterday, Husseini's body was flown from Kuwait to Jordan in a Kuwaiti state plane. His son, Abdul Khader, 25, and two brothers, Moussa and Ghazi, were among the weeping relatives and officials who met the plane at Marka air base in Amman. As Husseini's casket, wrapped in the Palestinian flag, was loaded onto a military jeep, a crowd of 200 shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is great). A motorcade of at least 40 cars accompanied the body to a hospital in the city. The body was then flown to Ramallah in the personal helicopter of King Abdullah II.

Husseini will lie in state in his Orient House office from 1:30 to 3 p.m, when the funeral procession will set out for the Old City. A turnout of tens of thousands is expected, and Palestinian Legislative Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei and other senior Palestinian officials are to be in attendance.

Orient House declared three days of mourning for Husseini.

Police will be on high alert from this morning, and will be deployed along the route to be taken by the funeral procession - albeit from a distance to avoid inciting violence.

West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti said that the funeral procession will start in Ramallah at 10 a.m., and that the cortege will attempt to break through checkpoints to enter Jerusalem. He warned there would be trouble if the IDF and police did not keep their distance from the funeral procession and the Temple Mount.

Palestinian officials said they hope the funeral will not turn into a riot, as that would dishonor Husseini's memory.

The PLO and the Palestinian Authority issued a statement describing Husseini as "a leader and a fighter who did not give up under Israeli aggression."

Outside Orient House, passages from the Koran rang out over loudspeakers. The Palestinian flag was lowered and a black flag was raised, and shops in the area closed.

"It's a loss for peace," said Ahmed Shoukry, 40, one of many family friends who gathered outside Husseini's east Jerusalem home. Inside, Husseini's widow, Najat, cried and shouted "Faisal! Faisal!" He is also survived by a daughter, Fadwa, 23.

Senior Arafat aide Ahmed Abdel Rahman noted, "Even when he died, he was doing his duty for his people and land."

Husseini arrived in Kuwait on Tuesday to attend a conference on resisting normalization of relations with Israel - the first visit by a Palestinian official to the country since it severed ties with the Palestinian leadership over the 1990-91 Gulf War.

The visit came under fire from Kuwaiti lawmakers as premature until the PLO apologizes to Kuwait for its support of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during the invasion of Kuwait that led to the Gulf War.

Husseini faced blistering attacks as MPs issued statements and held news conferences to criticize him, Arafat, and the PA, although they stressed continued financial and political support for Palestinians in the violence against Israel.

Husseini responded by saying he valued their views and understood the extent of the sensitivity in Kuwait, and stressed the need to resolve differences and restore ties.

Husseini denied the PLO had supported the invasion, but did not apologize. He said, however, that "the PLO position toward the invasion wasn't the best."

Ahmed Rubei, a lawmaker who participated Wednesday in a closed session of parliament's foreign affairs panel with Husseini, said Husseini had been "frankly told that official Kuwait and the Kuwaiti people had an unfriendly position against Arafat."

He said his colleagues had been incensed by Husseini's comment on arriving in Kuwait that Arafat might visit the emirate. Husseini had responded to a reporter's question about when Arafat might visit by saying, "Soon, God willing."

Lawmaker Saleh Fadalah on Wednesday had said Husseini was welcome in Kuwait as the person "in charge of the Holy Jerusalem file," but was "unwelcome and unwanted as a representative of the Palestinian Authority."

Husseini did not appear unsettled and smiled as he spoke to reporters after the meeting with the foreign affairs panel.

Ahmed Jarrallah, undersecretary of the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry, expressed his government's condolences, and said that Husseini had held "positive stands in support of Kuwaiti rights that we are proud of." But he said there is no specific government effort toward reconciliation with the PA.

Husseini visited Wednesday evening with relatives of those missing since the Gulf War and presumed by Kuwait to still be prisoners in Iraq. In the visitors' book at the state's committee for MIAs and POWs, Husseini wrote: "After seeing the faces of the families of the war prisoners and the missing and looking into their eyes, I am more adamant and more motivated to do all we can to end this tragedy. This is a promise that we may be able to keep."

Janine Zacharia contributed to this report.

-- Anonymous, June 01, 2001