Q & A : MARIE COLVIN: Searching for the Real Arafat

“The Faces of Arafat,” a documentary jointly produced by the BBC and PBS, attempts to bring viewers a glimpse of the real Arafat, the person behind the politics.

The film, which airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. on PBS’s “Frontline,” makes less of an attempt to analyze the situation in the Middle East than to introduce viewers to the obsessive, single-minded patriarch of the Palestinians.

“The Faces of Arafat” was produced by Marie Colvin, a Long Island-born reporter for the Sunday Times of London, who has covered the 60-year-old PLO leader for the past three years. Sharon Bernstein interviewed Colvin about Arafat and the documentary.

What is Yasser Arafat’s philosophy?

He is a pragmatist who believes in one very, very simple thing. He wants to liberate a homeland for the Palestinians. You can believe in communism, you can believe in Buddhism--as long as you believe in a homeland for the Palestinians.

Does he have a personal life?

No. He has none at all. He was never married and never even came close, although various people around him will tell you that at one point, he thought of marrying so and so. But I think he’s a person who has never had time for a personal life because he has been so utterly involved with and dedicated to his political cause.

How does he live?

One of the myths about Arafat is he never sleeps, that he lives this completely chaotic routine. That’s a myth. He lives this life of strictly controlled routines within what appears to be chaos.

For example, PLO meetings will usually go until about 4 a.m., a holdover from the days when they were an underground organization and had to meet at night. He will always sleep from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. He’ll then get up and have his breakfast at exactly the same time every morning--a very strange breakfast of cornflakes, with hot tea poured over, and honey. After breakfast, there are meetings, and then he takes a nap after lunch, followed by more meetings. He always gets his eight hours sleep--no one dares disturb him.

He doesn’t drink any alcohol. He gets up in the morning and walks very fast for half an hour. He wears the same thing every day. His uniform is starched clean every day. He cuts his stubble every five days to save time. He’s an absolutely meticulous man.

You have said that Arafat single-handedly brought the issue of Palestinian self-determination to international prominence. Is he a brilliant man?

He is very, very intelligent, a very adept political leader, but he does not understand how the West works. It’s a real gap now, and it’s hindering his ability to make any progress to his goal. He doesn’t understand how the U.S. works. He doesn’t understand that the President can’t just tell Congress what to do.

Was there pressure from the BBC or public television to make the film pro- or anti-Arafat?

They were very much involved in the final script writing. I wouldn’t say there was pressure to make it pro or con, but it’s a very, very controversial subject, more in America than Great Britain. The section on terrorism is extremely sensitive--there’s one scene where he actually walks out on me--and I’ve been back and forth with public television and the editors there. They wanted Israelis to appear all through the film, saying what they thought of Arafat. And I felt that would slow down the film and that it was not relevant.

They did make the language on terrorism a little harder, and I think that improved the film. We do have (Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak) Shamir saying what he thinks about Arafat. And Paul Bremer, who was undersecretary for terrorism in the State Department, says why the U.S. decided to open up talks with him after he renounced terrorism.

But I didn’t want to make and did not make a “ticktock” film: on the one hand this, on the other hand that. This is not a sympathetic film, but it is not a hostile film.

Is there a message in this film?

This is not a film to tell you Arafat thinks this and the Israeli government thinks that. The Israeli government thinks Arafat is a terrorist. Everybody knows that. I could call Shamirtomorrow, and he would say, “Arafat is a terrorist.” The film is a biography. We tried to make it very much a biography that would tell you, show you, what this man is like. There’s a good chunk of the film where we just follow him around and show you his routine.

This is a film about Arafat. You see him and hear him talking, and you can decide whether he’s believable or not.