Palestinian officials prepare for Arafat's funeral

1.00pm - By DONALD MacINTYRE in Ramallah

Palestinian officials yesterday began making arrangements for Yassser Arafat's funeral - even as he clung to life in a French military hospital - after Israel gave permission for him to be buried in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

When Mr Arafat dies, his body is expected to be flown to Cairo for a state funeral ceremony attended by Arab and other foreign leaders before being taken to Ramallah to be buried in the Muqata compound where he was confined for the last two and a half years of his life.

As one official said Mr Arafat was "in the last phase of his life", Israel and the Palestinians reached a compromise between Israel's desire to see him buried in Gaza and his own wish to be buried in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Bulldozers and dump trucks yesterday began clearing wrecked cars and other carefully preserved debris left by the Israeli onslaught on the compound two years ago to make a space for Mr Arafat's last resting place under a clump of Aleppo pine trees in the precincts of the British-built fort.

A few hundred Arafat supporters marched on the Muqata yesterday, chanting slogans such as "Arafat is the leader. Arafat is Palestine".

Beside having the experience and facilities to entertain a large group of foreign dignitaries, Egypt is a convenient location for Arab leaders who refuse to recognise the state of Israel or to travel to the occupied territories ahead of the formation of a fully independent Palestinian state.

It also has the advantage of having been Mr Arafat's birthplace, even though he claimed to have been born in Jerusalem where he spent much of his childhood and from where his mother came.

Meanwhile Leila Shahid, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation envoy in Paris said that Taisser Bayoud Tamimi, the cleric who heads the Islamic court for the West Bank and Gaza had been praying for his recovery and reading the Koran at Mr Arafat's bedside after flying to Paris to be with him in what she said was "the final phase of life."

Le Monde yesterday quoted the spokesman at the Percy hospital outside Paris, Christian Estripeau, as saying Mr Arafat's death "could be a question of hours, or, perhaps, days."

The cleric repeated that Islam outlawed any move to switch off Mr Arafat's life support and added: "It is absolutely rejected. As long as there are signs of life in the body of the president, he will remain under treatment."

The Muqata, now seen as a battered symbol of the Palestinian fight for statehood, was built in 1940 by the British during their mandate and used from 1948 to 1967 by Jordan during its period of control of the West Bank. Between 1967 and 1994 it was occupied by the Israeli military governate in Ramallah and after the formation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994 Mr Arafat moved between the Muqata and a similar compound in Gaza city.

At the height of the conflict during the present Palestinian uprising Israeli forces three times laid siege to the compound destroying parts of it with bulldozers and in the third attack, in September 2002, cutting off Mr Arafat in a still sandbagged corner of the complex where he continued to live until he was transported to Paris for medical treatment in Paris on October 29.

Although he was not imprisoned in the compound Israel did not - until his last journey - give him permission to return if he left Ramallah. In September 2003 two days after a double suicide bombing, the Israeli Cabinet took a decision to "remove" him from the Muqata which they never implemented.

Meanwhile Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, was said by an Israeli official to have told Cabinet ministers during a debate on the government's response to Mr Arafat's death, when it happens, that "we don't have to allow him to become a hero."

Mr Sharon, who as Defence Minister ordered the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to drive out Mr Arafat and the PLO, has frequently been quoted as saying he wished Mr Arafat had been killed at the time.

But the Israeli Interior Minister, Avraham Poraz, struck a more conciliatory note, telling Army radio: "We have no desire to provoke the Palestinian street or the Arab world, or the rest of the world. So when the man dies, we have to allow them to mourn him. In their eyes he's a hero."

He said the Palestinian Authority would be in charge of security and Israeli forces would remain on the sidelines unless there was unrest, such as an attempted march by Palestinians on Jerusalem.

Meanwhile Palestinian officials confirmed yesterday that Rawhi Fattouh, the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, would temporarily assume the office of President after Mr Arafat's death, though sharing his de facto powers with Ahmed Qureia, the Palestinian Prime Minister and his predecessor Abu Mazen, who is also secretay general and acting chairman of the PLO.

Although one Palestinian source was quoted as suggesting there would be moves to amend the PA's basic law to install a new President without the full elections prescribed in the law, Hanan Ashrawi, a prominent moderate PLC member, insisted that it had been decided to conform to the existing law.

If the PA does decide in favour of elections-as the Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said on Tuesday it would, it will urge Israel to ease restrictions which would make national campaigning well-nigh impossible.

- INDEPENDENT