Priest in Ramallah: "Funeral bells and a Mass for Arafat"
Ramallah (AsiaNews) - Christians in Ramallah were "saddened" by the news of the death of Palestinian President Arafat. Last night Christians and Muslims gathered in Ramallah for a candlelight vigil to pray for the Palestinian president. The pastor of the Latin-rite Holy Family Parish, Father Ibrahim Hijazin, told AsiaNews, "the funeral knell of our church will toll all day for our President".
After Arafat's burial on Saturday in Ramallah, Catholics there will celebrate a Mass in his memory. "People are very sad here," Fr. Hijazin said, "President Arafat had dedicated his life to independence and the creation of a Palestinian state. It's too bad that he will be buried here in Ramallah, where he had been holed up, and not where he would have liked: Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Authority has declared a 40-day period of mourning across the Palestinian territories to mark the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat.
Private businesses are to close for three days and public institutions for seven days, but a general mourning will last for 40 days during which flags will remain at half mast and all festivals will be cancelled.
The militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades urged militants to attack Israel to avenge the "Zionist assassination" of Yasser Arafat. "Zionist Israel and the government of [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon are responsible for the assassination of our leader by putting him under siege. This crime will not go without punishment" the statement said.
Some Israeli personalities express their comments on Arafat's death: "I hated him for the deaths of Israelis ... I hated him for not allowing the peace process ... to move forward," Justice Minister Yosef Lapid told Israel Radio. "It is one of the tragedies of the world that he didn't understand that the terror that began here would spread to the entire world," he added. Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres said, "There is no doubt that with the death of Yasser Arafat an era has ended ... for good or bad."
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