The repeated threats of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon have forced Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to return to the long-abandoned habits of a clandestine lifestyle, according to a report on Sunday in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
The president has reinforced his personal security force, directed by a general “without a face and without a voice,” Faisal Abu Shara, said the article.
Moreoever, Arafat no longer travels by car, restricts his public appearances, and tries to stay put in his Gaza Strip residence, which El Pais describes as “much more under watch…than his refuge in Ramallah.”
Since taking office, Sharon has characterized the Palestinian head of state as an “assassin,” a “pathological liar” and “terrorist.”
According to Western diplomatic sources cited by the paper, Sharon’s statement in a recent security cabinet session on the need to bring an end to Arafat’s “political life” have led the former fidai’, or guerilla fighter, to revive some of the old habits of underground life that he first tried out in Tunis and Lebanon.
The architect of Arafat’s improved personal security is Abu Shara, according to El Pais. The paper said that despite repeated Israeli press statements to the contrary, the Presidential Guard under Abu Shara’s command, not Force 17, was responsible for the president’s well-being.
Force 17, said the report, was responsible for watching over public institutions and buildings, while the guard was complemented by a special security force created in 1995 to watch over both internal and external opposition to Arafat.
El Pais said the Presidential Guard was the only Palestinian force with modestly sophisticated weapons – Albawaba.com
