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w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m Last update - 16:44 12/11/2004 Arafat buried amid chaos in Muqata By Arnon Regular (Ramallah), Amos Harel and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies RAMALLAH - To the roars of tens of thousands of Palestinians, and shots in the air fired by tense Palestinian police and masked gunmen, the flag-draped casket of Yasser Arafat was borne through milling, surging crowds Friday for burial in a plot next to the office to which Israel confined the Palestinian leader for nearly three years. The burial ceremony followed a...

Yasser Arafat triumphantly emerged from his sandbagged office building Thursday and flashed a victory sign to hundreds of supporters who streamed inside in a show of support for the Palestinian leader. "We are in a sacred land, and we will protect our holy Christian and Muslim places. we send a message to the detainees, and to the prisoners, together all the way to Jerusalem," Arafat said. Arafat emerged to address the crowd after Israel said it had decided to "remove" him. He also recited a passage from the Quran about being steadfast in the face of the oppressor. "The leader...

Sep. 11, 2003 IDF troops seize PA ministry near Arafat's Muqata By THE JERUSALEM POST STAFF IDF troops took control of the Palestinian Authority Cultural Ministry in the West Bank city of Ramallah Thursday morning, Palestinian sources said. The building, located just south of Yasser Arafat's Muqata compound, gives the soldiers a vantage point of the Muqata and sends a direct and clear message to Arafat that the IDF is present in the West Bank city. Palestinian officials expressed concern over the takeover, saying that they expected the IDF to impose a total siege on Arafat. The action came just...

A team of senior cabinet ministers, headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, met Sunday in Jerusalem, and decided to ease the siege of Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat's Ramallah headquarters. The IDF will present its plan for redeployment at around noon Sunday, and the withdrawal is expected to start soon thereafter. The decision conforms to a promise made by Israel to the U.S. over the weekend to bring about a speedy end to the siege. The decision was also reportedly precipitated by a veiled threat by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to resign, if a solution to the siege was...

The stalemate over the siege of the Muqata, the Ramallah headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, remained yesterday as the Palestinians stuck to their refusal to provide Israel with a list of the estimated 200 people inside the last remaining building in the Palestinian Authority compound demolished by IDF bulldozers and tanks over the weekend. Meanwhile, Pope John Paul called for an end to the violence and the siege and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who holds the European Union's rotating presidency, urged Yasser Arafat to do all he can to rein in suicide bomb attacks against Israel and...

Sunday, September 22, 2002 Tishrei 16, 5763 Israel Time:  14:28  (GMT+3) Electricity, water cut in Arafat's headquarters 5 killed in west bank Last update - 14:16 22/09/2002 Electricity, water cut in Arafat's headquarters By Amos Harel, Amira Hass and Arnon Regular, Ha'aretz Correspondents, Ha'aretz Service and Agencies IDF bulldozers clearing rubble near Yasser Arafat's office in the Ramallah compound Saturday. (Photo: AP) IDF troops raising an Israeli flag on the roof of a building near Arafat's Ramallah office.(Photo: AP) Five Palestinians were killed in the West Bank on Saturday and Sunday during Palestinian demonstrations in support of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, who is...