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Arafat Buried in Ramallah; Funeral in Egypt

HeadlineNov 12, 2004

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is being buried today in the West Bank at the site of his Ramallah compound. He died yesterday at the age of 75. Earlier today a private military funeral was held in the Egyptian capital of Cairo. Dignitaries from around the world attended the Cairo procession but the event was closed to the public. No Israeli officials attended. Arafat’s body was then flown to Ramallah. In Ramallah, tens of thousands of Palestinians have taken to the streets and swarmed around Arafat’s coffin after it was unloaded from the helicopter. Earlier thousands of youths had burst–uninvited–into Arafat’s compound hours before his body arrived from Cairo. A symbolic funeral service is also being held in Gaza. Most Palestinians in Gaza have been barred by the Israelis from traveling to the West Bank to attend Arafat’s burial. Meanwhile jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouthi yesterday urged Palestinians to retain their commitment to the intifada after the death of Arafat. Barghouthi has been often been mentioned as a possible successor to Arafat due to his enormous popularity, but Israeli officials insist he will spend the rest of his life in jail. In June he was handed five life terms for murder by an Israeli court.

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