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1 July | ![]() |
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1994: Yasser Arafat ends 27-year exile
The chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Yasser Arafat, has returned to the Gaza Strip after 27 years in exile.
Fear of reprisals by Israeli and Palestinian hardliners has meant that Israel has mounted its largest security operation since President Sadat of Egypt visited Jerusalem during the 1979 Camp David Agreements. Dressed in his usual military fatigues and keffiyeh headdress, the PLO leader raised a victory salute as he crossed the border at Rafah from the Sinai Desert in Egypt. Just before taking a helicopter from Cairo with the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, Mr Arafat said: "Now I am returning to the first free Palestinian lands. You have to imagine how it is moving my heart, my feelings."
Death threats and threatening graffiti by Israeli settlers at Kfar Dorom forced a route change. But Mr Arafat was still able to see for the first time the problems - from garbage-strewn streets to Israeli enclaves like Gush Qatif - which he will have to address as ruler of the fledgling Palestinian state. The PLO leader's visit comes a month after the Israeli-PLO Cairo Agreement created a fragile self-rule for Palestinians in Gaza and Jericho in the West Bank. The Gaza Strip and the West Bank were among the areas of land seized by the Israelis in the Six Day War of 1967. In Gaza City Mr Arafat gave a triumphant address from the balcony of the former headquarters of the Israeli military governor to a Parliament Square packed with 200,000 Palestinians. His differences with other Palestinian leaders appeared to dissolve as Mr Arafat spoke of his interest in Jerusalem. The itinerary for Mr Arafat's three-day visit includes Jericho but not Jerusalem, according to his adviser Nabil Shaath. Demonstrations against Mr Arafat's presence are taking place in Jerusalem and elsewhere.
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