WEST BANK: PRESIDENT ARAFAT CHALLENGES U.S. ATTEMPTS TO PUSH POLITICAL CHANGE IN PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES/ HUNDREDS TURN OUT FOR FUNERAL OF HAMAS MILITANT KILLED BY THE ISRAELI ARMY

Record ID: 402577

  • Title: WEST BANK: PRESIDENT ARAFAT CHALLENGES U.S. ATTEMPTS TO PUSH POLITICAL CHANGE IN PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES/ HUNDREDS TURN OUT FOR FUNERAL OF HAMAS MILITANT KILLED BY THE ISRAELI ARMY
  • Date: 14th December 2002
  • Summary: (W5) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (DECEMBER 14, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV: PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT SITTING IN OFFICE MEETING WITH UNESCO DELEGATION 0.03 2. SV: ARAFAT TALKING TO UNESCO DEPUTY 0.08 3. CU: UNESCO DEPUTY SITTING IN MEETING WITH ARAFAT 0.12 4. CU: HAND OF UNESCO DELEGATION MEMBER 0.15 5. WIDE OF AR
  • Embargoed: 29th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TULKAREM AND RAMALLAH, WEST BANK
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA3NTJAQVNDC4ZLNF3BIUFRK0CJ
  • Story Text: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has challenged U.S.

    attempts to push political change in the Palestinian
    territories, saying Palestinians would choose their own
    leaders.

    Hundreds of Palestinians have turned out for the funeral
    of Tarek Abed Rabbo, a Hamas Palestinian militant killed by
    the Israeli army.


    Speaking at his West Bank headquarters in the city of
    Ramallah on Saturday (December 14), Arafat made clear that any
    political change in the Palestinian leadership would have to
    be made by the Palestinian people and not by anyone else.

    Emerging from a meeting with UNESCO delegates, Arafat said
    he had told the U.S. that the Palestinian people would choose
    their own leadership in upcoming elections.

    "We told them (the Americans) that there will be
    Palestinian elections. Palestinian people will decide the new
    palestinian leadership in the coming elections", Arafat said.

    He was responding to a a question on recent remarks on
    Palestinian democracy by U.S. Secretary of State, Colin
    Powell.

    The U.S. has embarked on an ambitious programme to
    increase democracy and prosperity in the Middle East.

    In the Nour A-Shams refugee camp, close to the West Bank
    city of Tulkarem, the funeral took place of Palestinian
    militant Tarek Abed-Rabbo, killed by Israeli troops in his
    house on Friday (December 13) afternoon.

    Tarek Abed Rabbo was a senior field commander of Hamas's
    military wing. Palestinian security sources said he was shot
    13 times while hiding in a closet by soldiers who raided the
    refugee camp.

    An Israeli army statement said he was killed while
    resisting arrest.

    Amid the continued violence, chances have diminished of a
    meeting of Middle East mediators in Washington next week
    completing the peace plan on which they started work more than
    six months ago, diplomats said.



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