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Abbas Vows to Follow Arafat's Hard Line
The new head of the Palestine Liberation Organization says he will not budge on questions about Jerusalem and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
By Ken Ellingwood and Maher Abukhater
Special to the Times
1:29 PM PST, November 23, 2004
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Mahmoud Abbas, the newly named head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, vowed today to pursue Yasser Arafat's goals of achieving a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and securing a "right of return" for Palestinian refugees.
Abbas, nominated by leaders of the PLO's dominant Fatah movement as its candidate for president of the Palestinian Authority, in effect launched his election campaign with a speech during a memorial ceremony for Arafat.
The remarks seemed calculated to reassure hard-line Fatah loyalists that Abbas would not give in easily to Israel on issues central to Palestinians. Abbas, a 69-year-old former prime minister, is known as a pragmatist and critic of using violence to win statehood.
His new prominence has raised hopes among Israeli and American officials for a more moderate Palestinian leadership — but fueled resistance among younger militants.
"The path that the leader Yasser Arafat has taken did not reach its destination and we were not able to achieve all our goals," Abbas said during the brief speech, his first since Arafat died Nov. 11. "We still have a lot to do to achieve our national goals."
Abbas said Palestinian leaders "will not rest until we achieve the right of return for our people and end the tragedy of living as refugees."
