Word: arafats
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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While cooperation was building mutual confidence in Jericho, P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat stirred up a furor in Israel when remarks he had made at a Johannesburg mosque on May 10 were broadcast. Arafat called for a "jihad to liberate Jerusalem." Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin deemed the comment a violation of the Chairman's pledge to forgo violence and threatened to stop the peace process. Arafat explained that he had used "jihad" in its general sense to mean "struggle," in this case a peaceful one, rather than "holy war," as Westerners and Israelis usually interpret the word. The Israelis reluctantly...
...seal an agreement to begin Palestinian self-rule, were astonished by the drama unfolding among the dignitaries onstage. For 35 minutes, while the principals came and went from the podium, their attention was all too plainly elsewhere. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres remonstrated with Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, Prime Minister ^ Yitzhak Rabin with Peres, Arafat with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev with Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Rabin kept shrugging angrily while Arafat stood stonefaced. Then the entire group walked off the stage...
Rabin had discovered that Arafat failed to pen his name to six accompanying maps that spelled out important terms of the deal. The Prime Minister threatened to quit the ceremony unless Arafat relented. Four minutes later, the parties reappeared. The audience applauded in relief as Arafat returned to the desk and methodically wrote in annotations above his signature on the documents...
Before doing so, Arafat wanted a written guarantee that the size of the self-rule enclave around Jericho would be open to revision, not cemented at the 25-sq.-mi. area drawn on the maps. With that promise, the deal was sealed. But the public theatrics underscored how tentative is each step toward Israeli-Palestinian coexistence. The snafu in Cairo was only "the tip of the iceberg of problems that we shall have to overcome," said Rabin...
MIDDLE EAST: Over to You, Arafat...