Yasser Arafat’s grip on power appeared to be slipping on Sunday after his subordinates assumed control of the major Palestinian organisations at the weekend and some politicians predicted that his domination was at an end.
The Palestinian leader’s aides portrayed the transfer of powers as routine, but there was a growing sense that the ailing 75-year-old would be unable to reassert his authority unless doctors in France said they could restore his health.
Palestinian officials said doctors had ruled out leukaemia as the cause of his illness, but the hospital has not confirmed this. The aides said doctors were investigating whether Arafat had a viral infection or had even been poisoned.
The Palestinian foreign minister, Nabil Shaath, said on Sunday that Arafat had eaten a good breakfast. ”He’s much better, he’s really much better, and he’s more cheerful,” Associated Press reported him as saying.
The leaderships of the major Palestinian organisations met at the weekend to agree a transfer of powers. The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, took charge of the national security council, which oversees the armed forces.
But the main political levers fell under the control of the former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, who broke with Arafat last year after accusing him of undermining negotiations with Israel.
Abbas assumed the chair of the PLO’s executive committee, the organisation’s highest policymaking body. He also took over interim control of the Fatah movement, which dominates the PLO and the Palestinian Authority. Abbas walked out of the Fatah executive last year after he resigned as prime minister.
But his leadership of Fatah is far from assured if Arafat dies or is incapacitated, as many see Abbas as too moderate.
The changes were intended to dispel any doubt among the PLO and Fatah’s political rivals that they remained in control. But for some politicians the transfer marked the end of the Arafat’s domination.
”There is no doubt the Arafat era is coming to an end,” said Mawi al-Masri, an independent MP. ”Even if Arafat returns, things have changed. The glass is cracked.”
The deputy speaker of the Palestinian parliament and a member of Fatah, Hassan Khareisha, agreed. ”For years now there was a leader who was more important than the institutions. Now the time has come to consider whether that was the right position,” he said.
But others noted that the end of the Arafat era had been declared several times before.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad have called for the creation of a national unity government of all Palestinian parties, but the PLO rejected this.
The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, said on Sunday that his unilateral plan to pull Jewish settlers and the army out of the Gaza strip and a small part of the West Bank would proceed even in the event of Arafat’s death. – Guardian Unlimited Â