Aysha Ramadan reports from Tunis on the significance of the late Palestinian leader's sojourn in the North African country Late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat spent almost 12 years in Tunisia, beginning with his departure from Lebanon in 1982 and ending with his return to Palestine in 1994 following the signing of the Oslo accords. Only heavy security around the Tunisian offices of the PLO drew attention to Arafat's presence -- most Tunisians were either unaware of his comings and goings or else didn't care. Yet the announcement of his death on Thursday had an impact that could be read on the faces of many Tunisians. News of Arafat's death cast a shadow over Eid Al-Fitr as the Tunisian government announced a three-day mourning period and cancelled all official Eid celebrations. Tunisia mourned "the loss of a great freedom fighter, a magnificent leader, a man whose life was an inextricable part of Arab and Islamic history, and a towering symbol of self-sacrifice and selflessness." In a telegram sent to the head of the Palestinian Legislative Council the Tunisian president remembered him as "the supreme combatant", a designation only ever applied in Tunisia to former president Al-Habib Burqiba, the father of independence and the founder of modern Tunisia. Independent political voices and several civil society organisations called for a gathering in the Tunisian capital's main street at the same time as the funeral in Cairo and his burial in Ramallah in the West Bank. Despite considerable efforts on the part of the security forces to prevent the demonstration those activists able to make it to the pre-arranged gathering point were able to hold up slogans calling for the liberation of Palestine and make their way to the Public Tunisian Work Union, the only centre for union activity in the country and one which, despite all attempts to bring it to heel, is viewed as a symbol of struggle by the majority of Tunisia's civil society. On Friday night a number of democratic activists made their way to the Palestinian Embassy to present their condolences along with officials from political groupings. In a sombre atmosphere candles were lit as posters of Arafat were raised aloft. In their public statements and announcements these organisations had confirmed that Arafat was, and will remain, a symbol of the struggle against occupation. He died leaving a legacy that opened the door to negotiations. It is a legacy from which it will be hard to back away. During the gathering outside the Palestinian Embassy the official spokesman of the Democratic Initiative, Al-Sayid Al-Eyashi Al- Hamami, said that Arafat had survived an assassination attempt aimed at erasing the Palestinian issue by eradicating its symbolic leaders. The former secretary-general of the Arab League, Al-Sayid Al-Shazli, said that Arafat was "a man of peace, yet he rejected all dishonest compromises that threatened his people's rights." A statement by the local daily newspaper, Al-Shurouq, added that it was because of "his refusal to submit to the unfair conditions that Yitzhak Rabin's successors sought to impose that the peace process was set back", opining that Arafat had left a "clear legacy" that there should be "no backing away from the right of the Palestinian people" to a unified and sovereign homeland. The Tunisian president was keen to attend the funeral held in Cairo in the company of his wife, Leila Bin Ali, a close personal friend of the deceased president's wife, Suha Arafat. Since she left Palestine after the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000 Suha has divided her time between Tunis and Paris. The two women are connected, it is said in Tunisia, by ties that go beyond friendship. They are involved, it is rumoured, in several projects and enterprises. Although no one knows exactly what these are it is well-known in Tunisia that Suha owns shares in Tunisiana, the communications company that runs Tunisia's second mobile phone network. Following the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993 the late president, along with the majority of Palestinians resident in Tunisia, returned to the Palestinian territories. It was end of 12 years exile in Tunisia, an exile that began when the Israeli army expelled them from Beirut and the Syrian army drove them out of Tripoli. The Tunisian capital became headquarters to the PLO's various organisational structures while Palestinian fighters dispersed into the refugee camps that set up in Wadi Al-Zurqa in Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen, Sudan and Iraq. The stability of Palestinian-Tunisian relations over the course of the Palestinians' lengthy sojourn was helped by a clear agreement between the two sides. The Tunisian authorities made no attempt to interfere in Palestinian affairs, staying true to Burqiba's promise to this effect even following his removal from power in 1987. The former president held true to the proverb that "the inhabitants of Mecca know the lie of their land better than others." Not even the 1985 Israeli assault on the Palestinian headquarters in the suburb of Hamam Al-Shatt changed this status quo. For their part the Palestinians kept their promise not to launch any operations from Tunisia. Despite the chill that afflicted relations between the two sides in 1987 as a result of the Achille Laura operation they overcame their differences. At present the only vestiges of the PLO in Tunisia are a handful of individuals, the most prominent among whom are Abu Maher and Abul-Lutf, whose real name is Farouk Al- Qadoumi. It is unclear whether this situation will change, especially with regard to Al- Qadoumi, a man known for his violent opposition to the Oslo accords and who refuses to acknowledge the existence of Israel. Despite being one of the founders of the PLO he has been far from the centre of power. His election to the leadership of Fatah could lead to a change in the equation. It is still not known whether he will stay in Tunisia or leave to organise the remaining Tunisian Palestinians -- a term used by Palestinians to describe those who returned in 1994 -- in the occupied territories.
