In Arafat's shadow

It was a wake that refused to end. Six men carried a coffin decorated with the Palestinian flag. Dozens of people followed, weeping over the body of Yasser Arafat. The head of the Palestinian Territories was buried in Ramallah - not in the Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon where the mourners had gathered - but the grief over Arafat's death was so great that the group chose to carry an empty coffin to a grave. If they weren't allowed back to their homes, the refugees at least wanted to pretend to be near their idol one more time. That was 10 years ago.

Bearer of hope

For the Palestinian refugees, Arafat, who died in a Parisian military hospital on November 11, 2004, and was buried a day later in Palestine, was a bearer of hope. The militia leader and politician consistently brought their fate into the public light. Arafat fought for an independent Palestinian state. As leader of Fatah, the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, which later formed the core of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), he bore joint responsibility for countless attacks on Israeli, Jordanian, and Lebanese targets.

It was only in the 1990s, when Arafat found himself increasingly isolated politically, that he showed himself ready to negotiate with Israel. "For a long time it seemed as though the signature under the declaration of principles that introduced the Oslo peace process would mark Arafat's greatest historical achievement," said Martin Beck, professor of Middle East Studies at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. But nowadays that notion is less clear. "The formation and content of the declaration were extremely problematic. Arafat had accepted an asymmetric peace process under whose long-term failure the people of Palestine still suffer today."

Charismatic leader

After the talks failed in 2000 - partly because the opponents of the agreement in Israel began to gain ground, after radical Palestinians continually carried out attacks - Arafat tolerated and then supported the second Intifada - the armed resistance against Israel. One reason for that was the growing opposition to him presented by the Islamist Hamas group - even though Arafat himself remained an undisputed charismatic leader for the Palestinians.

His successor, Mahmoud Abbas, distanced himself from the confrontational course adopted by the late Arafat. Unlike Arafat, who rarely appeared in public without a khaki uniform and a black-and-white keffiyeh on his head, Abbas considers himself more of a thinker and a pragmatist who aims to achieve a Palestinian state by following a long road of small steps and negotiations. He believes that the Palestinians violent struggle has achieved nothing but blockades and worldwide hatred. One reason why the journalist Thorsten Schmitz described Abbas - in the German daily "Süddeutsche Zeitung" in 2004 - as "the ideal candidate" for the "critical transitional time in which Palestinian society can distance itself from its father figure and prepare for a time without Intifadas."

Political dead end

But 10 years after taking power, Abbas seems to be stuck in the same dead end as his charismatic predecessor, though without the esteem built up over decades in the eyes of many Palestinians. On top of that, Hamas represents a radical competition that has achieved little with its uncompromising stance, but controls the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Abbas' PLO controls the West Bank.

The lives of ordinary Palestinians have barely improved in the past decade. Many of the injustices that brought thousands of Palestinians to the barricades in 2000 still exist, or have grown even worse. Meanwhile, the Gaza Strip has been sealed by Israel and its people have no economic resources.

Abbas' critics

More than this, many Palestinians criticize their leaders for cooperating with the occupational forces. "In comparison with the Gaza Strip, the people in the West Bank benefit materially, and the security situation is much better," Beck told DW. "But the people in the West Bank also pay a high price, because in many ways it seems to them that Abbas has practically come to terms with the hated occupation."

The creation in April of a government of national unity between Fatah and Hamas has also attracted criticism. Advances are barely recognizable and the promised parliamentary elections have yet to materialize.

As popular as Abbas is among Western politicians, he has become increasingly discredited among large parts of his own population, who are becoming increasingly distrustful of both Fatah and Hamas. Many Palestinians complain about Abbas' passivity on Israeli policy in Gaza and the West Bank. Most don't want to have anything more to do with violent resistance - especially since the Israeli security forces have reinforced their repression against the Palestinians.

Ten years after Arafat's death, many Palestinians now long for another undisputed leadership figure who will give them the hope of a new state - that is what the Palestinians may need most.