Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is to be given a state funeral in Cairo and buried in Ramallah. Dina Ezzat reports "Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand." --Yasser Arafat, 1974 Palestinian leader and symbol of the Palestinian national struggle Yasser Arafat died peacefully of an unspecified blood disorder in a military French hospital near Paris earlier this morning. Arafat's body will be brought to Cairo this evening for a state funeral that will be held tomorrow morning. Arab and world leaders, foreign ministers and dignitaries are expected to attend before the Palestinian leader's body is flown to Ramallah for burial. The Cairo funeral will begin at 11 am Cairo local time and is expected to take place at the military Galaa Club in Heliopolis. A parallel popular funeral organised by the Egyptian Committee in Solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada will take place at the Al-Azhar mosque in Islamic Cairo during the Friday prayer. Thousands are expected to join the popular funeral which will be held under strict security measures. The Arab League headquarters in Cairo will receive condolences for three days. Palestinian officials initially wanted the funeral to take place in the League�s headquarters in central Cairo, but their request was turned down for security concerns. The legendary figure who survived many assassination attempts and death situations devoted all of his lifetime to the cause for establishing a Palestinian statehood with Jerusalem as its capital, but failed to wait to see this dream become true. A state of grief reigned in Egypt and the Arab world as news of his death was announced this morning. An informed Cairo-based Palestinian source told Al-Ahram Weekly that the body will be received by a group of senior Palestinian officials. "They would probably be members of the central committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation including Farouk Qadoumi, Ahmed Ghoneim, Mohamed Jihad who will come to Egypt from Jordan and Abdullah Al-Afrangie who will accompany the body from Paris to Egypt," the source said. According to this same source Arafat's wife Soha, who has openly accused top Palestinian officials of trying to usurp power, insists on accompanying her husband's body. "The Egyptians do not want to have scenes of factional Palestinian fighting and confrontations," the source said. As a compromise, Cairo proposed that Soha Arafat and Zahwa, Arafat's daughter could accompany the body but stay away from the official funeral. "Mrs Mubarak has been so kind and she offered to receive Soha Arafat and Zahwa Arafat for the duration of the funeral." The ceremony is not expected to last for more than 60 minutes. Arafat's body will then be taken by plane to Ramallah. "There the body should be received by senior Palestinian officials including Mahmoud Abbas, the number two man in the Fattah movement, Ahmed Qurei the Palestinian prime minister and other senior Palestinian officials who will then accompany the body to the Palestinian Parliament where Palestinian officials will pay their last respects. Some international heads of state, including South African President Thabo Mbeki and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, will attend the funeral in Cairo; most Western countries will send lower-level representatives. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns will officially represent the United States, while British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will represent London. The Palestinian Authority will then have a pre-burial prayer before the body is laid to rest near Arafat's erstwhile headquarters, Al-Muqataa. "We are going to bury our leader there temporarily but we will eventually exhume the body which should be in Jerusalem," Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said yesterday. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refuses to permit Palestinians burying Arafat in Jerusalem. Egyptian sources say that he was also opposed to Arafat's burial in Ramallah. "He wanted him to be buried in Gaza but we, together with the Americans, managed to get an Israeli approval for Ramallah," said one Egyptian diplomatic source. Egypt is also working with the US to make sure that Israel will provide the necessary security measures for the Ramallah burial of Arafat. The decision to hold Arafat's funeral in Cairo was taken Tuesday morning by President Hosni Mubarak, following a phone call from Abbas, in which the PLO second-in- command made this request. Previously suggested scenarios, including a limited funeral in a Red Sea resort or in Tunis, now seem highly unlikely. This said, some Palestinian sources have indicated that Soha Arafat might hold a symbolic ceremony in Tunis and that the Jordanian government, out of consideration for the large Palestinian population in Jordan, might also stage a similar symbolic ceremony. "Personally, I will not be surprised if I find a symbolic ceremony for this leader who dedicated his life for the Palestinian struggle in every Arab capital," said a Cairo- based Palestinian diplomat.
