Where and How to Bury
Yasser Arafat

Yasser Arafat at the Grave of Nasser in Cairo in 1970

MIDDLEEAST.ORG - MER Editorial - Washington - 7 November: There are no good choices at this point in history other than Jerusalem.

Burial under occupation in Gaza Ghetto or in walled-off Ramallah orchestrated by Ariel Sharon and the Israeli military is not the way to go. Burial in France or a Western country is not the way to go.

The best 'solution' to this hugely symbolic historic moment under all the circumstances is burial in the capital city of the Arab League - Cairo.

Far better symbolism than burial under the dictate of Israeli military occupation and today's apartheid conditions is 'temporary' burial in the city where the headquarters of the Arab League is located, indeed in a special crypt on the grounds of the Arab League in downtown Cairo.

Then, when the Palestinians finally someday in the future achieve their free and independent State, the remains of Yasser Arafat can be transferred to Jerusalem where everyone knows he long wanted to be buried and surely deserves to be buried.

Until that time Arafat's shrine in the largest Arab capital at the center of Arab affairs on the very grounds of the Arab League will serve as a constant reminder of what Yasser Arafat truly came to symbolize to his people, to the Arab and Muslim peoples, and to the world.