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Oren Maddix

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Shielding Yasser Arafat from attack
Uri Avnery Social activist
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After Rabin's assassination, Arafat's situation worsened. First of all, the chances for peace were dashed, and then there was Arik Sharon. We remembered still from Beirut the huge efforts Arik had undertaken in order to catch Arafat and kill him. I think the need to kill Arafat became not exactly an obsession for him, but an issue deep in his mind, and I had no doubt that he would do everything he could to achieve this aim. His problem was that the Americans would not let him – what I say now is an assumption – in the same way they had told him on the eve of the war in Lebanon that he was not to attack Lebanon unless there was a reason that would be accepted by the world. I presume they said the same thing regarding Arafat: Sharon was only allowed to kill him in a way that couldn't be traced back to Israel, and thus to America. They thought, wrongly, that Arafat's murder would enrage the Arab world and cause a general uprising. The threats to Arafat's life increased. Twice there were situations where it appeared that they were on the brink of killing him, and each time Rachel and I organized a group to act as a human shield. We went there and positioned ourselves in Muqata, not in the main building but in a building nearby – the hall used for gatherings and speeches – with sleeping bags, and that was where we spent our time, and slept and ate. Once, Jonathan Pollak was with us. We can't say that he was the 'leader' of the anarchists because anarchists have no leader, but he was if not the 'first among equals' – anarchists have no 'firsts' only 'equals' – he was clearly the dominant personality among the anarchists. He was the grandson of Nimrod Eshel, who led the sailors' strike, a great guy, really, a true idealist. So he was there and a girl came who was rising in our circles at Gush Shalom and other organizations around us. She was a pretty girl who described herself as a sex worker – in short, a prostitute, but an official prostitute. I think the medical institutions recruited her to treat impotent men and things like that. She was a very nice girl, and she came, too. So we weren't bored. It was a nice group and we remained there for several days and nights.

אחרי רצח רבין המצב של ערפאת הורע. קודם כל הסיכויים לשלום נגוזו, היה אריק שרון, ואנחנו זכרנו עוד מביירות את המאמצים הענקיים שאריק השקיע כדי לתפוס את ערפאת ולהרוג אותו. זה הפך אצלו לדעתי לא ממש לעניין כפייתי, אבל לעניין עמוק בתודעתו שצריכים להרוג את ערפאת, ולא היה לי ספק שהוא יעשה כל מה שהוא יכול. הבעייה שלו הייתה שהאמריקאים לא הרשו לו. מה שאני אומר עכשיו אני משער. כמו שהאמריקאים אמרו לו ערב מלחמת לבנון, שאסור לו לתקוף את לבנון אלא אם כן יש סיבה שהעולם יכיר בה. אני משער שאותו דבר נאמר לשרון בעניין רצח ערפאת – מותר לו להרוג אותו רק בצורה שאף אחד לא יוכל למצוא את העקבות חזרה לישראל ומשם לאמריקה. הם חשבו, בטעות, שרצח ערפאת יסעיר את העולם הערבי ויגרום להתקוממות כללית. אז ברגע שהאיומים גברו היו פעמיים מצבים שהיה נראה שאו-טו-טו הולכים לרצוח אותו. וכל פעם רחל ואני ארגנו קבוצה למגן אנושי, מה שנקרא באנגלית human shield. ואנחנו נסענו לשמה, התמקמנו במוקטעה, לא בבניין העיקרי כי אם בבניין הסמוך – אולם האסיפות ואולם הנאומים, עם שקי שינה, ושמה בילינו וישנו ואכלנו. פעם אחת היה אתנו גם יונתן פולק. אסור להגיד שהוא היה מנהיג האנרכיסטים מפני שלאנרכיסטים אין מנהיג. אבל הוא היה, גם לא ראשון בין שווים מפני שבין האנרכיסטים אין ראשון ושווים, יש רק שווים, אבל היה ברור לגמרי שהוא האישיות הבולטת בקרב האנרכיסטים. הוא היה הנכד של נמרוד אשל ממרד הימאים, בחור נהדר, באמת, אידיאליסט אמיתי. והוא גם בא. ובאה בחורה שהיא הייתה טיפוס בחוגים שלנו ב"גוש שלום" וגם בעמותות האחרות סביבנו. בחורה יפה שהגדירה את עצמה כ"עובדת מין”. זונה בקיצור, אבל זונה רשמית. אני חושב שמוסדות רפואיים היו מגייסים אותה בשביל לטפל באימפוטנטים וכל מיני דברים כאלה. הייתה בחורה מאוד נחמדה, והיא גם באה. ככה שלא השתעממנו. היה חוג נחמד, שכבנו שם כמה ימים ולילות.‏

Uri Avnery (1923-2018) was an Israeli writer, journalist and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. As a teenager, he joined the Zionist paramilitary group, Irgun. Later, Avnery was elected to the Knesset from 1965 to 1974 and from 1979 to 1981. He was also the editor-in-chief of the weekly news magazine, 'HaOlam HaZeh' from 1950 until it closed in 1993. He famously crossed the lines during the Siege of Beirut to meet Yasser Arafat on 3 July 1982, the first time the Palestinian leader ever met with an Israeli. Avnery was the author of several books about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including '1948: A Soldier's Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem' (2008); 'Israel's Vicious Circle' (2008); and 'My Friend, the Enemy' (1986).

Listeners: Anat Saragusti

Anat Saragusti is a film-maker, book editor and a freelance journalist and writer. She was a senior staff member at the weekly news magazine Ha'olam Hazeh, where she was prominent in covering major events in Israel. Uri Avnery was the publisher and chief editor of the Magazine, and Saragusti worked closely with him for over a decade. With the closing of Ha'olam Hazeh in 1993, Anat Saragusti joined the group that established TV Channel 2 News Company and was appointed as its reporter in Gaza. She later became the chief editor of the evening news bulletin. Concurrently, she studied law and gained a Master's degree from Tel Aviv University.

Tags: Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon, Yasser Arafat, Jonathan Pollak

Duration: 5 minutes, 1 second

Date story recorded: October 2015

Date story went live: 26 June 2017