War Fragment a Prize at Palestinian Auction

It was an auction of the spoils of war that drew nearly 5,000 chanting Palestinians into a chilly, smoke-filled gymnasium at the Wahdat Refugee Camp in the heart of the Jordanian capital Thursday night.

It opened with thousands chanting, “Saddam, Saddam, send the chemicals, Saddam! Saddam, Saddam, hit Tel Aviv, Saddam!” as emcee Pahdal Bayari shouted through the microphone his praise for the terrorists who had lobbed mortar shells near the home of the British prime minister earlier in the day.

And it ended nearly three hours later with shouts of “Death to Bush! Long live Saddam!” as the successful bidder, a Palestinian merchant named Wael Kasrawi, strutted off with his acquisition.

Described by the auctioneer as “a great piece of art,” the prize on the table was a twisted, 6-by-2-foot, camouflage-painted shard of gunmetal billed as part of a wing from an American F-16 fighter jet shot down over Iraq.

The final price: $33,100, a total that--under the peculiar rules of this particular auction--was actually contributed by all the bidders, not just the final one. The money was described as a donation from the poorest of the Palestinians “to the Iraqi children and their army.”

Asked what he will do with the chunk of metal--now bearing the handwritten Arabic inscription “Made in New York, financed by Saudi Arabia and destroyed in Trebeil by the strong arm of Iraq”--Kasrawi said he will donate it to the Iraqi Embassy in Amman.

The auction was a powerful demonstration of the fires Saddam Hussein has ignited throughout the Arab world, as he and his 17 million people have withstood more than three weeks of incessant allied bombardment.

And with more than a dozen Western journalists invited to the event as “observers strictly barred from bidding,” Thursday’s auction was a rare opportunity for some of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been living in camps in Jordan for as long as four decades to express to the world their perspective on the Persian Gulf War, which they see as being fought for their own liberation.

The auction also showed the intensity of support the Iraqi strongman enjoys in the nation next door--as Jordan’s leader, King Hussein, struggles more and more each day to maintain the kingdom’s neutrality.

“This is a symbol of how Jordan can contribute to the Iraqi war effort,” Bayari, the Palestinian president of the refugee camp’s sports club, which sponsored the auction, shouted to the swelling crowd just before bidding began.

“It’s been more than three weeks since the war started, and they have used every kind of weapon in the world against Iraq. But Iraq has resisted and defended itself. It is paying the price in blood. But, no matter what they use, it will not even make a dent in Iraq’s determination and steadfastness,” Bayari said.

“This auction is our contribution to the Mother of Battles.”

It was a speech that set the tone for what was to follow, an almost-macabre bidding orgy for a souvenir of war’s spoils that no one could verify as genuine.

According to the Palestinians, the metal fragment was recovered by a camp driver who had delivered a donation of food and medicine to Iraq soon after the allied air strikes began last month. And whether it was part of a wing or a fuselage, an F-16 or an F-4, it hardly mattered. For everyone in the camp Thursday, it took on a value difficult to comprehend, a symbol as dear to the Palestinians as the war itself.

The rules for this auction were as strange as the prize. Rather than a bidding war in which the highest offer won, Thursday’s auction was more like a living telethon for Saddam Hussein and his people. The bidding started at 1,000 Jordanian dinars (about $1,600). Each new bid had to be handed over in cash, which the auctioneer then tossed into a five-foot silver trophy cup. The winner would be the very last person to make a donation, regardless of its size.

And so the bidding went on for hours. Palestinian refugees with barely enough to eat handed over 20-dinar notes with shouts of “Praise be Allah, praise be Saddam!”

Children, their fists stuffed with dinars, were passed by their parents from shoulder to shoulder over the surging crowd to the trophy cup, which stood beside the mounted plane fragment. Palestinian youths with delirious smiles hugged each other each time the auctioneer announced a new landmark: “We’ve crossed 10,000!”

Throughout the intensive bidding, the auctioneer, a Palestinian vegetable vendor named Ahmed abu Amro, often would cajole: “Come on. Come on. Every tarife (penny) you give will be used to destroy Bush.” And always he reminded them, “Come on, this all goes to save the Iraqi children.”

Frequently, with Abu Amro’s staccato narration in the background, potential bidders approached the Western journalists mingling in the crowd.

“American? You’re American?” a stunned Salah Sabatin asked a Times reporter. “Well, I have a message for your President Bush. You tell him we are here because Saddam Hussein is a hero who will lead the Palestinians back to their homeland.

“He’s the only Arab leader who threatened to hit Tel Aviv and actually hit it. And now, he is the leader of millions of Palestinians all over the world.”

Sabatin, a well-dressed, middle-class office worker who has lived in the camp since Israel occupied the West Bank--and Sabatin’s home in Hebron--during the 1967 war, spoke for many Palestinians who have thrown their support behind Saddam Hussein only since the war began and he began launching his Scud missile attacks on Israel.

“We now believe Saddam Hussein should take over all of Saudi Arabia, all the way to Yemen and including all the Gulf states,” Sabatin declared.

Others stressed that their angry chanting was directed not at the American people but at their President.

“We like American people, and we consider them friends,” said a Palestinian student who identified himself as Rahamadan. “But the American Administration treats us like we are from the Third World and we don’t matter.

“So don’t be afraid. We don’t hurt American people. As clear evidence, you can see that all of us want to talk to you.”

Another member of the crowd, a man named Mahmoud, learned that he was speaking to an American, and his eyes widened with anger toward the United States.

“We used to love America,” he said. “We loved American democracy. But where is his American democracy now?”

Just then, auctioneer Abu Amro shouted that the bidding for the plane fragment had jumped to 2,700 dinars, and Mahmoud grinned broadly.

“The Arab blood is not cheap,” he said. “The Arab blood is very expensive--too expensive for your Bush. Now, you see, it’s 2,700 for this piece of a jet fighter. Even this is too expensive for America.”

And another Palestinian student in the crowd, an articulate and more reserved young man who asked not to be identified because “the next time I try to cross to the West Bank, they will turn me back,” concluded that, regardless of how high the bidding went, the piece of metal would be priceless to whoever won it.

“You see, you cannot understand how it is here--here in this camp where we have lived for so many years just waiting to return to our homes,” he said. “Here, so many people sit awake at night with the radio or television, waiting to hear that Saddam’s missile has hit Israel. When it hits, we can sleep and have good dreams. If no missile comes, we have bad dreams.

“Believe me, for the one who wins this piece of the enemy, it will be like a treasure. And for his children, it will be history.”