THE BETHLEHEM ASSOCIATION EXTENDS ITS CONDOLENCES TO ALL PALESTINIANS ON THE PASSING OF PRESIDENT ARAFAT.

 To His Excellency Mahmoud Abbas:

We are deeply saddened by the passing of President Yasser Arafat the beloved father of the Palestinian nation.  We share your grief and join you in mourning his loss.

For more than forty years Abu Amar symbolized the national aspirations of the Palestinian people. Against tremendous odds, he led the Palestinian struggle with single-minded devotion and determination at great sacrifice to himself and his people. We are very saddened that he did not live to see the fulfillment of his dream of an independent, viable and sovereign Palestine. We pray that his spirit will continue to watch from heaven to see this dream realized soon. May he rest in peace.

On behalf of our Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahur members in the United States and North America we extend our deepest condolences and sympathy to the Arafat family, to you and all the Palestinian people and your new government.

Sincerely,

The Bethlehem Association

Pennsylvania, November 11, 2004

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Statement Arab Educational Institute on President Arafat's death

Now our president Yasser Arafat has passed away, we – administration, staff and members of the AEI – are praying for the rest of his soul, and share the mourning period announced by our government. We honor him as a father of the nation who was able to build out of nothing an independent Palestinian movement, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), which stood for the realization of the Palestinians' national rights. He was the one who built up a movement of armed struggle but it was also under his leadership that the PLO declared its willingness to concede no less than 78% of historic Palestine and accept living side by side with Israel in the remaining 22% of the land; in the West Bank, East-Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Despite all the valid criticisms against him, he was the one who both as a symbol and by his decision-making as a chairman of the PLO and later on as president of the Palestinian National Authority, was able to keep Palestinian nationalism alive and to hold the Palestinian nation together under dramatically adverse circumstances. To a great extent it was he who obtained international recognition for the Palestinian rights; first in the Arab world, and later on in other parts and in the Western world.

In his last years he stayed among his people, living under siege in the Muqata' in Ramallah, barely able even to leave his headquarters. The conditions there were so degrading that according to the Palestinian leadership visiting him at his deathbed in Paris, the medical doctors treating him said that these conditions significantly contributed to a general weakness that led to his death. His temporary burial in the Muqata' in Ramallah is a fitting choice, as it leaves him among his people during a stage of the national struggle that does not yet allow him to be buried near the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian people now face a new reality which requires careful but energetic action. The Palestinian Basic Law says that a new president should be elected not later than 60 days after a president's death. Obviously, it will be a great challenge to hold elections while the Palestinian people live under occupation and siege. But now it is the time to respect our national institutions and procedures, to maintain national unity, to fully install the rule of law, and to carry out the reforms agreed upon. We also emphatically appeal to the international community to help realizing conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories which allow for the holding of valid elections and for election campaigns. Within a democratic and peaceful framework, we will labor for achieving the national dream that guided president Arafat's life, as well as the lives of his people.

Arab Educational Institute