WEST BANK: President Mahmoud Abbas attends inauguration ceremony for mausoleum dedicated to memory of PLO leader Yasser Arafat

Record ID: 560181

  • Title: WEST BANK: President Mahmoud Abbas attends inauguration ceremony for mausoleum dedicated to memory of PLO leader Yasser Arafat
  • Date: 10th November 2007
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING TOWARDS MOSQUE IN MAUSOLEUM COMPOUND VARIOUS OF PRAYERS INSIDE NEWLY BUILT MOSQUE ABBAS PRAYING MUSLIM FAITHFUL KNEELING DOWN IN PRAYER MEN STANDING AT GRAVESTONE WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF MAUSOLEUM
  • Embargoed: 25th November 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5TX6YEXUGCLTNFPKW1ZOQUS9Y
  • Story Text: A newly built mausoleum for former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was inaugurated on Saturday (November 10) with a full honour-guard and diplomatic ceremony in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other leaders attended the ceremony, marking the third anniversary of the death of the PLO leader, who symbolised the Palestinian struggle for an independent state.
    Palestinian and foreign dignitaries gathered in the mausoleum's compound, built in a rectangle shape and coloured white. Inside the mausoleum, a white grave stone carved in black Arabic letters reading "Martyr Yasser Arafat", and dates of his birth and death -- August 4th 1929 and November 11 2004.
    "We still continue to work our path for the establishment of a Palestinian state and holy Jerusalem as its capital, God willing and bless you all," Abbas said in the hour-long ceremony.
    Later Abbas and other Muslim faithful prayed at a mosque which was built next to the grave hall.
    Arafat rose from guerilla icon to Nobel peace prize-winner. He held the reins of power over the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), the self-rule Palestinian Authority and the main Fatah political movement. But he ended up isolated and mired in conflict with Israel.
    He died in a French hospital three years ago when he was 75 years old after suffering a brain haemorrhage. He was flown there from the West Bank with an illness, the details of which have not been disclosed.
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