YASSER ARAFAT
CBC video flashback: 1969
CBC News Online
I was assigned by executive producer Ross McLean at CBC Current Affairs to go to the Middle East on New Year's Eve 1968 for the program The Way It Is. Palestinians were hijacking planes and we were supposed to find out why. Palestinian nationalism was a new phenomenon and that week Yasser Arafat was on the cover of Time. Cameraman Jim Mercer, soundman Patrick-Spence Thomas and I arrived at Beirut airport to a scene of devastation. (Those were the days when videocams and colour TV were just a dream. So bear with us.)
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Just before we arrived, Israeli commandos blew up 13 civilian airliners at Beirut International Airport. Israel said the attack was a reprisal for an attack in Athens by Palestinians. Americans in Beirut reacted. |
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We saw many different Palestinian factions training. The "fedayeen" (freedom fighters) came from all walks of life: some were Christians, some were Muslim socialists, others were non-religious. |
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The refugees were housed in thousands of tents on the rocky Jordanian hills. The children we saw are in their 40’s, still living as refugees. |
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Living conditions for the refugees were harsh. Many owned property in the West Bank and what is now Israel. They all expected to be going home soon. We saw no evidence of Islamic fundamentalism. |
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Well-to-do Palestinians living in Beirut saw Yasser Arafat mainly as a figurehead, the tip of the Palestinian iceberg as one woman put it. |
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Arafat was 34 years old at the time. From a wealthy business background, he'd been educated as a civil engineer. We met him in secret after a long trip during most of which we were blindfolded. |
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Palestinians called themselves the new Jews. At the American University of Beirut, we met a young Hannan Ashrawi, some academics and U.N. officials. |
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We met Arafat in an underground complex in the south of Jordan. There was no running water or electricity. He denied wanting to “push the Jews into the sea”, although others had made that statement. |
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