Chaos as Yasser Arafat is buried - Democratic Underground

KDLarsen

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Fri Nov-12-04 10:00 AM
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Chaos as Yasser Arafat is buried

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4006437.stm

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has been buried at his battered compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah amid chaotic and emotional scenes.

Mr Arafat's body was lowered into a marble and stone grave as thousands of Palestinians thronged the area.

The burial took place amid tumultuous scenes as tens of thousands of mourners surged around the coffin.

It took 25 minutes for the coffin to be unloaded from the helicopter because of the huge crowd.

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I was watching this as it was taking place - it was one freaking violent crowd. The jeep they wanted to transport the coffin on was driving back & forth at breakneck pace, just cutting into the large crowds to try to create some space around the helicopter.

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Skidmore

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Fri Nov-12-04 10:21 AM
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1. On C-SPAN now. Reminds me of Khomeini's funeral and

burial. * and crew have grossly underestimated the ME, as has every superpower who ever tried to tame it.

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malaise

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Fri Nov-12-04 10:22 AM
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2. What Violent Crowd

Edited on Fri Nov-12-04 10:24 AM by malaise

I saw a massive outpouring of emotion - didn't see any violence. Clearly some people were hurt given the pressure of the crowd and their desire to get near the coffin. Clearly the officials had one thing on their minds -burying him by sundown hence they forced the crowds to part so the vehicle could pass.

Put simply the people took over the funeral and Arafat would have loved it. There are times in history when public displays of love are way more important than ceremony. This was one of them.
Anyone with an understanding of what Arafat means to his people expected exactly what we saw.

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Skidmore

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Fri Nov-12-04 10:24 AM
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3. I agree. There is nothing unusual about the demonstration

of grief in this crowd nor the level of it's intensity.

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gratuitous

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Fri Nov-12-04 10:35 AM
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4. We'll see what happens now

The question that keeps suggesting itself to my mind is "What if it turns out Arafat was keeping a lid on things, not stirring the pot, as all western observers think?"

I don't think anyone in Stupidhead's administration has the expertise or the inclination to do anything about the Palestine/Israel situation, and this is another one of those areas where running Operation Ignore can have massive repercussions.

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cubsfan forever

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Fri Nov-12-04 12:12 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. Well said!

I have had the same thoughts re Arafat for years. He was at once a "bogeyman" for Resident Moron, and someone who could, as you so astutely observed, "keep the lid on things" with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian debacle. Anyone who thinks that this conflict and the rest of the Middle East are not linked is either stupid or a thuglican. But I repeat myself...(Mark Twain)

Professor 2

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