Arafat's Legacy: Palestine Clad in Black Awaits Rebirth*
By Genevieve Cora Fraser
He blew kisses
As he left the stage
Trembling with emotion
He kissed the hands
Holding him up
Arafat has fled
The ravages of time
And attacks on his life
His aspirations
Symbolized by the cage
That detained him
The bulldozed wreckage
Remains
Will hold his remains
The remains of what is
The Palestinian Authority's
Al-Muqata Headquarters
America gave the green light
For attack Israel didn't hold back
But ravaged Ramallah
In an act of violent provocation
That provided another
Near death experience
For the cat's lives
Lived in keffiyeh headdress
And military fatigues
Arafat lived for peace
As well as intrigues
Never purely black and white
He answered the enemies
Of Palestine with blood red resistance
Fatah opened the gates
Of retaliatory hell for an Israel
Sweeping aside
The bones of the fallen
As it launched fresh assaults
On those who remained
But in the end
Arafat's love outweighed his hate
Despite the reprehensible oppression
The genocidal intent
Of Zionist forces bent
On domination and control
And liberation of Palestine
From its people
Despite Israel's reign of massacre
Starvation, dehydration
Dispossession
State-sponsored terrorism
Arafat prevailed
With strategy
And determination
Bribes and wit
He wrestled Israeli Demons
To preserve Palestinians'
56 year-old
Right to Return
>From ravaged refugee camps
And far flung Diaspora
To their ancestral homeland
Despite all the difficulties
And the troubles we are facing
We will continue
We will continue
We will continue
Arafat said
Because it is the Terra Sancta
The Holy Land
It is not only for Palestinians
But for the Israelis
For all Jews
For all Christians
For all Muslims
This is the Terra Sancta
The Holy Land
Palestine
So spoke Mohammed
Abdel-Raouf Arafat
al-Qudwa al-Husseini
a.k.a.
Abu Ammar
The man the world knew
As Yasser Arafat
Winner of the Nobel
Famous for brandishing
A pistol
In one hand
And an olive branch
In the other
For some
He was the arch-enemy
But for many
He was the one
They could count on
And now
He is gone
Arafat will never die
He is our leader
He is our father
The People cry
Aching with loss
His legacy
A Free Palestine
Will someday rise
As a Phoenix
In the midnight blue
Palestine will rise
From the blood and ashes
Of brutal occupation
As surely as the rebirth
Of the crescent moon
Or we will die martyrs
Trying
* I extend my deepest sympathy to Palestinians throughout the world on the
death of President Arafat. May the world community now take up the cause
of a Free Palestine in the clear light of International Law and the
assistance of the General Assembly of the United Nations, rather than the
predetermined end-game, the political diversions and dictates of the
Zionist Power Elite and their American associates.