The New York Times
Published: November 11, 2004
AMALLAH, West Bank, Thursday, Nov. 11 - Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, died early Thursday morning in a Paris hospital, a French military spokesman announced.
Mr. Arafat will be buried in Ramallah, on the West Bank, in the Muqata, an old British fortress he used as his headquarters and where he spent the last three years confined to his compound by the Israelis.
Palestinian officials said, Mr. Arafat will be buried here on Saturday, near his headquarters, from which he was airlifted to a French hospital on Oct. 29.
"The Palestinian leadership mourns Yasir Arafat," he said.
"We mourn with our people, with the Arab nation, with the whole of humanity," he said, the loss of "the tutor, the leader, the son of Palestine, its symbol, the builder of its modern nationalism and the hero of its battle for freedom and independence."
As he finished, saying: "Glory to you, our leader," Mr. Rahim broke into tears.
Mr. Arafat died with the Palestinians still in a limbo of semistatehood, a final peace with the Israelis unachieved and a lingering intifada against Israel that has seen the deaths of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians over the last four years.
Mr. Rajoub, speaking on Al Jazeera television, then sent a further message to Palestinians, asking for stability. "The coming phase should be one of institutions and laws, working through existing institutions, whether strong or not," he said.
Under the rules of the Palestinian Authority, the speaker of the parliament, Rawhi Fattouh, will serve as acting president until new elections are held for the post within the next 60 days.
Mr. Arafat's lingering death allowed his putative successors, most prominently Mahmoud Abbas, the secretary general of the P.L.O., and Ahmed Qurei, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, to organize themselves. They are working in tandem, and are trying to reach out to other, younger Palestinians with more power and street credibility.
Mr. Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, is expected to take over the P.L.O. and Fatah, while Mr. Qurei, known as Abu Ala, will continue as prime minister but with more authority over the day-to-day running of government.
But there is bound to be a struggle for the Palestinian leadership over time, with a younger generation of militants and reformers pressing for a larger voice in Palestinian affairs, and hard choices coming about whether to try to absorb militants like Hamas or to confront them and try to make peace with Israel.
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