PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas marked the end of 40 days of mourning Tuesday with lavish praise for the "eternal" Yasser Arafat, vowing the Palestinian patriarch would one day be buried in his beloved Jerusalem. "No words of homage are sufficient to commemorate his memory," Abbas said in a speech inside Arafat's old West Bank headquarters in the town of Ramallah, known as the Muqataa, as thousands of supporters gathered in the courtyard outside.
"Arafat led our people to the doorstep of liberty and independence. Abu Ammar (Arafat) remains eternal in the minds and collective memory of our people and the Arab and Islamic people," he added. Abbas, favourite to succeed Arafat as Palestinian Authority president, echoed one of Arafat's most famous refrains by pledging: "The day will come when a child raises the flag of Palestine from the walls of Jerusalem."
Arafat, who died on November 11, was buried in the grounds of the Muqataa after Israel refused permission for his interment in east Jerusalem, where the Palestinians hope to have the capital of their promised future state. But Abbas said the current resting place would not be his final one.
"We speak near your temporary grave until the soil of liberated Jerusalem embraces you," he said.
Prime minister Ahmed Qorei also stressed that the new Palestinian leadership would continue to follow in the footsteps of Arafat.
"The path of Yasser Arafat is ours. His principles are ours and his goals are ours," he said. "We will not deviate from this path as it leads to an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."
Envoys from Egypt and Jordan as well as the Vatican's representative in Jerusalem attended the ceremony as bands played in the courtyard of the one-time British fort where Arafat spent nearly the last three years of his life as a virtual prisoner of Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had identified Arafat as the "main obstacle to peace" in the region and boycotted him completely. After several death threats against his arch enemy, Sharon did allow Arafat to fly to France for treatment for a blood disorder in late October.
Ahmed Abdelrahman, Arafat's former cabinet secretary, read a speech by Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa that refuted Sharon's accusation.
"Arafat was not an obstacle in the path of peace but was an advocate of a just and comprehensive peace," he said.
The exact cause of Arafat's death in a French military hospital remains a mystery.
Rumours continue to circulate that he was the victim of poisoning even though his French medics have said they have found no evidence.
Abdelrahman said in an interview published Monday that he believed Arafat could have been poisoned death as early as September last year.
The death of Arafat, who dominated Palestinian political life, has raised hopes of breakthrough in the Middle East peace process.
While holding back from naming Abbas, Sharon has said the emergence of a new Palestinian leadership offered an historic opportunity for peace in 2005.
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