adam helberg

Arafat calls upon children to become 'martyrs'


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Khaled Abu Toameh Jul. 12, 2003

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Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat on Friday called on Palestinian children to follow
the example of Fares Odeh, a 13-year-old boy from the Gaza Strip who has been immortalized
posthumously by a photograph showing him throwing stones at an IDF tank. Odeh was alleged to
have been killed on November 8, 2000 after being shot by IDF soldiers.

Arafat was speaking at a reception he held in his headquarters in Ramallah for hundreds of
children from Jerusalem participating in summer camps. Many of the summer camps in the West
Bank have included in their programs this year visits to Arafat's office.

Arafat has often cited Odeh's case in speeches praising the role of children in confronting IDF
soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. When IDF tanks and armored vehicles surrounded his
headquarters last year, Arafat declared: "I'm not better than martyr Fares Odeh, the brave
Palestinian boy who confronted the tank. These tanks don't frighten me."

In another interview following a similar IDF operation, Arafat said in response to a question
whether he wasn't afraid: "What is the danger? No one can scare the Palestinian people. You can
ask Fares Odeh."

At the reception on Friday, Arafat also announced that Palestinians would from now on mark July
10 as the anniversary day of Fares Odeh. He also repeated his famous statement that the day
will come when a Palestinian child would hoist the Palestinian flag over the walls of
Jerusalem's Old City, its minarets and churches.

"A people that has the likes of Fares Odeh and other children martyrs will not die," he added.

Odeh, of the Zaituon neighborhood in Gaza City, has become a Palestinian icon after being
photographed defying a tank with a slingshot in his hand, his valor celebrated in graffiti. His
picture adorns calendars and his poster has been painted on the walls in the Gaza Strip and
West Bank and in many PA offices.

Some of the summer camps in the Gaza Strip have been named after Odeh and other Palestinians
killed in the violence since September 2000. In the Tulkarm refugee camp, a soccer tournament
was named last year after Abdel Baset Odeh, the suicide bomber who carried out the attack in
the Park Hotel in Netanya in March 2002.


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