Arafat Looms Behind Would-Be Successors

Anyone who didn’t know better might have thought that Yasser Arafat was alive and well and running for Palestinian Authority president.

Seven candidates, led by Mahmoud Abbas, kicked off a 15-day electoral campaign Saturday, with most if not all seeking to capitalize somehow on the memory of the Palestinian icon, who died Nov. 11 at age 75.

Arafat’s image adorned campaign posters and newspaper advertisements; his name was freely invoked in speeches and campaign slogans.

One candidate seeking to succeed Arafat, Mustafa Barghouti, sought to literally assume the late leader’s mantle, donning a checkered black-and-white kaffiyeh headdress like the one that was Arafat’s trademark. He staged his opening campaign event a few steps from Arafat’s grave.

All the candidates sounded similar themes: calls for Palestinian statehood and demands that Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers leave the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

“Israel must withdraw from all Palestinian lands it occupied in 1967,” Abbas said in his inaugural campaign speech, referring to territories captured from Jordan and Egypt in the Middle East War. “The occupation must end.”

The stylized nature of the speeches and campaign events underscored candidates’ unwillingness to distance themselves from Arafat, who was revered by Palestinians as a symbol of their national struggle, even though many of them grumbled over his inability to govern effectively, clean up corruption or come to an agreement with the Israelis on statehood.

Abbas, now the interim leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, quit the post of Palestinian Authority prime minister in disgust when Arafat repeatedly quashed his efforts to rein in the fractious security forces and carry out other reforms. Abbas also differed openly with Arafat over tactics in the 4-year-old Palestinian uprising, saying that armed conflict and suicide bombings were a mistake.

None of that, though, prevented Abbas from pledging continued loyalty to the late leader. Using Arafat’s nom de guerre, he said, “We tell Abu Ammar this: All you have said in the past, it is our duty to carry out.”

Abbas also chose photos of himself with Arafat to feature in his first main round of campaign ads in Palestinian newspapers.

Israeli officials have not appeared bothered by Abbas’ professions of fealty to Arafat, whom they virtually confined to his headquarters in Ramallah in his last years.

One senior official in the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Abbas’ credentials as a moderate were well established, but Israel recognized that he had a domestic constituency to court and challenges by hard-liners to fend off.

Hamas, the largest and most powerful Palestinian militant group, has made plain its intention to claim a share of political power. Hamas is not officially taking part in the Jan. 9 presidential election, but partial unofficial results indicated its candidates made a strong showing in municipal elections last week.

The preliminary tallies from Thursday’s vote, indicating victories for Hamas in at least seven of 26 municipalities, were challenged by both sides, however. Official results were to be announced today.

The 69-year-old Abbas is also coping with rivalries within his ruling Fatah faction, which has a “young guard” eager to come into its own.

Chief among them is 45-year-old Marwan Barghouti, a popular ex-militia leader who considered running against Abbas from an Israeli jail, but eventually dropped the idea. Marwan Barghouti, a distant relative of Mustafa Barghouti, is serving multiple life sentences in connection with attacks on Israelis.

With Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, watching from a seat on stage, Abbas demanded the release by Israel of Palestinian prisoners, singling out Barghouti for particular mention. When Fadwa Barghouti spoke, her mention of her husband’s name drew raucous cheers.

Despite his nods to Barghouti’s charisma and Arafat’s legacy, Abbas stayed faithful to his own sober style, drawing applause that was polite rather than fervent.

In contrast to the quasi-military fatigues Arafat always wore, the bespectacled Abbas was clad, as usual, in a business suit and tie, his white hair carefully coiffed.

Abbas’ campaign manager, Mohammed Ishtayah, defended the candidate’s decision to deliver a speech at a municipal hall in the Ramallah suburb of Al Birah rather than lead a fiery march or a stage an open-air rally.

“We could have launched the campaign at a refugee camp and had 20,000 people there,” Ishtayah said. “But we chose to do it here.”

Israel has pledged to try to keep military activity to a minimum during the campaign, but its troops have continued to hunt the leaders of militant groups.

On Saturday, Israeli soldiers killed a prominent West Bank leader of the Martyr Yasser Arafat Brigade, formerly known as Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia loosely linked to Fatah.

Troops surrounded a building in the Jenin refugee camp where the wanted man, Thaer abu Kamal, was holed up, then demolished the house with antitank missiles and a bulldozer after he refused to come out.

Abu Kamal’s body was found later in the wreckage.

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Times special correspondent Maher Abukhater in Al Birah contributed to this report.