Palestinians await Arafat news with dread

By Lucy Williamson BBC Middle East reporter, Ramallah

Ramallah does not yet feel like a town in mourning

As the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat lies unconscious in a Paris hospital, the political life inside his West Bank compound continues and a Palestinian administration has been working hard to maintain an air of calm and normality.

The music coiling out on to the street is an Arabic pop song. A woman's voice singing about love.

Ramallah doesn't yet feel like a town in mourning. It feels like a town in waiting.

Part of that is timing. It's Ramadan - the Muslim month of fasting - and daily life has a slow, syrupy quality.

For sure everyone's worried. But we're not expecting him to die. If he dies everyone here will be sad and angry, it'll be a mess Walid Ballon seller, Ramallah

In the town centre, balloon sellers Walid and Fuad lazily bat away shiny dolphins and golden-haired clowns as they wait for custom.

"For sure everyone's worried," says Walid. "But we're not expecting him to die. If he dies everyone here will be sad and angry, it'll be a mess."

Who will they be angry with? I ask him.

"Israel... because Israel wants him to die."

"It's all Israel's fault," Fuad joins in. "Years in that compound with no water, no sunlight; they made him sick."

Rumours

When Mr Arafat was airlifted out of his compound over a week ago, it was the first time he'd left the West Bank for nearly three years.

Israel, saying he wasn't doing enough to stop attacks against Israeli targets, had refused to let him come and go at will. Now there is a risk many Palestinians will blame Israel for his condition.

What did Arafat do for the people here? What did the Oslo peace agreements do? We're under more pressure - financially, emotionally - while he and his wife are getting richer Hana Shopper in Ramallah

Except no-one's quite sure what his condition is. It is clear Yasser Arafat is very ill, but the reports about his health have been confusing.

Rumours are slipping furtively round Ramallah that he's slipped into a coma, that he's already dead. Not everyone believes he'll recover.

Further up the main street, I meet Ahmed, a student. "I think it's very bad. He's not going to stay alive for very long - maybe a day or two. We're waiting for news now, about what's going to happen to us."

"No-one lives forever," another passer-by, Mina, tells me. "I feel so sad. He gave his life for the Palestinian people, but no one can keep doing something forever; someone else will take his place and carry on."

Succession question

The question of who could succeed Mr Arafat is never far from the surface.

Many Palestinians believe their leader has left the West Bank for the last time

Some in Ramallah support Mahmud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, the former prime minister and co-founder of Yasser Arafat's Fatah party. Others, especially the older generation, believe there is no-one to replace him.

"Our lives won't be the same," one man tells me. "No-one will listen to us any more, no-one will do anything for us, not Abu Mazen, no-one."

But some people here believe Mr Arafat failed to achieve much either.

Hana is out buying headscarves with her daughters in the town centre. The problem, she told me, is that you talk to Israel but nothing happens.

"What did Arafat do for the people here? What did the Oslo peace agreements do? He did nothing for the Palestinian people. We're under more pressure - financially, emotionally - while he and his wife are getting richer."

Fears

Hana believes Mr Arafat is already dead. But, she says: "Israelis are more afraid of his death than we are, because they know it will mean more martyrdom operations [suicide attacks]."

Chaos in Palestinian towns, attacks in Israeli ones: the fears are real, but no one knows exactly what will happen should Mr Arafat die.

The interim Palestinian leadership has put a great deal of effort into running the administration in his absence.

And there's a sense of resignation in the voices of many people here. He's like a father, they say, a grandfather. Perhaps for many Palestinians this is the death of a grandfather - respected, loved but allowed to die.

Do you feel you said goodbye to Mr Arafat when he left his compound on Friday? I ask Mina.

"I hope not, but everyone feels he left for the last time," she says.