S3: Ramallah | E5: Yasser Arafat Museum
This museum is an educational and cultural exhibit that aims to showcase to the people of Palestine and the world, the narrative of the Palestinian National Movement through the life and work of Yasser Arafat, the historic leader of the Palestinian people.
PaliRoots™ - The Palestine Movement
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⭐️Sponsored by Penny Appeal USA:
Penny Appeal USA is a nonprofit development organization working to alleviate poverty through both long term sustainable programs and emergency relief in over 30 countries. One of PA USA’s key focus areas in Palestine. PA USA’s projects stretch all over Palestine from Gaza to the West Bank, providing essential support to the Palestinian People.
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Yasser Arafat museum opens in Ramallah
The Yasser Arafat Museum opens in Ramallah, shedding light on the long-time Palestinian leader's life and offering a glimpse of history -- along with a number of his trademark black-and-white keffiyehs.
State of Palestine: Abbas opens Yasser Arafat museum in Rammalah
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul-Gheit , opened the new Yasser Arafat Museum in Ramallah, Wednesday. Yasser Arafat was the first President of the Palestinian National Authority and remains a symbol of the Palestinian resistance today.
Video ID: 20161109-123
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S3: Ramallah | E4: The Palestine Museum Garden
The Palestine Museum offers a variety of exhibits including an exhibition that explores the changing representation of landscape shaped into a prism depicting the landscape of Palestine. Each section of the landscape highlights ingenious plants of Palestine and how the Palestinian people benefit from them holistically.
PaliRoots™ - The Palestine Movement
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⭐️Sponsored by Penny Appeal USA:
Penny Appeal USA is a nonprofit development organization working to alleviate poverty through both long term sustainable programs and emergency relief in over 30 countries. One of PA USA’s key focus areas in Palestine. PA USA’s projects stretch all over Palestine from Gaza to the West Bank, providing essential support to the Palestinian People.
Join Penny Appeal in securing the future of Palestinian families. Visit: to learn more about their programs and to donate.
Penny Appeal USA is a nonprofit development organization working to alleviate poverty in over 30 countries including Palestine.
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Directed by @abeernajjar_:
S3: Ramallah | E3: The Palestine Museum
The Palestinian Museum is a flagship project of the Welfare Association, a non-profit organization for developing humanitarian projects in Palestine. We managed to catch the Labour of Love Exhibition featuring hundreds of thobe with untold stories.
PaliRoots™ - The Palestine Movement
✘SUBSCRIBE:
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⭐️Sponsored by Penny Appeal USA:
Penny Appeal USA is a nonprofit development organization working to alleviate poverty through both long term sustainable programs and emergency relief in over 30 countries. One of PA USA’s key focus areas in Palestine. PA USA’s projects stretch all over Palestine from Gaza to the West Bank, providing essential support to the Palestinian People.
Join Penny Appeal in securing the future of Palestinian families. Visit: to learn more about their programs and to donate.
Penny Appeal USA is a nonprofit development organization working to alleviate poverty in over 30 countries including Palestine.
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Yasser Arafat Museum
Abu Jihad assassination
Indian PM hails late Palestinian leader Arafat during news conference in Ramallah
(10 Feb 2018) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday praised the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as one of the greatest leaders of his time.
Modi spoke in Ramallah after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and following a visit to Arafat's gravesite.
Modi's visit to the city of Ramallah was the first by an Indian prime minister to an autonomous Palestinian enclave in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The Indian leader pledged 41 million US dollars for a hospital, three schools and other projects in the West Bank.
He said India remains committed to Palestinian national rights, but stopped short of offering support for Abbas' political agenda.
Modi's West Bank visit was seen, in part, as an attempt to compensate the Palestinians after he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for six days last month, in a reflection of warming ties between Israel and India.
Modi flew to Ramallah from Jordan by helicopter on Saturday and laid a wreath at the grave of Abbas predecessor Yasser Arafat, located in Abbas' walled government compound.
Modi then toured the Arafat museum, which is also part of the compound, before holding talks with Abbas.
Abbas said after their meeting that he remains committed to negotiations with Israel as the path toward Palestinian independence.
Palestinians seek a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in 1967, but no meaningful talks on statehood through a partition deal have been held for almost a decade.
The Indian leader headed to the United Arab Emirates after his West Bank visit.
Abbas is scheduled to meet on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia's Black Sea town of Sochi.
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Fifteen years since mysterious death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat
Nobel Peace laureate Yasser Arafat, who was the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), died in suspicious circumstances after years of efforts to end the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
The Yasser Arafat Foundation is holding its annual meeting on Sunday to grant an award in his name, aimed at encouraging achievements in national work.
Al Jazeera talks to Yossi Beilin, a former Israeli minister.
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#AlJazeeraEnglish #YasserArafat #ArafatAnniversary
GAZA: PALESTINIANS SHOW SUPPORT FOR YASSER ARAFAT
Arabic/Nat
Hundreds of Palestinians have rallied in self-ruled Gaza to show support for Yasser Arafat after Syria's defence minister, Mustafa Tlass, launched a vicious verbal attack on him earlier in the week.
In a speech marking Army Day in Syria and Lebanon, the Syrian minister called President Arafat obscene names for making peace with Israel.
Tlass's comments have unleashed a wave of angry protests by Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Thousands of Palestinians were bused to Yasser Arafat's headquarters on Saturday for a raucous demonstration protesting at the Syrian defence minister's insult of the Palestinian leader.
Angry demonstrators waved banners, pictures and flags, chanting slogans in support and praise of the president.
About 50 masked members of Arafat's Fatah group shot their semi-automatic weapons in the air in a show of solidarity.
In a speech in Lebanon last week, Syria's Defence Minister, Mustafa Tlass, accused Arafat of giving up on the Palestinian cause and abandoning Jerusalem by signing the 1993 Oslo peace accord with Israel.
He also accused the Palestinian leader of making concession after concession to Israel, likening him to a stripper removing layers of clothing.
At Saturday's rally, Arafat said that the Palestinian Authority was sticking to the agreement signed in Oslo, and - aiming his comments at the Israeli president, Ehud Barak - reiterated his desire that the agreement be implemented in full.
SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)
We say to Barak, that we want to implement the agreement. We say to Barak that we want to implement the agreement which we signed and which the world witnessed. Yes, we want to implement the agreement according to each and every word and we don't need favours from anyone. We want to implement a true agreement so we can get to Jerusalem.
SUPER CAPTION: Yasser Arafat, Palestinian President
Arafat's relationship with Syria has been tense and hostile for years.
Arafat, though, insisted that the Palestinian people were fighting the same cause as Syria, and the rest of the Arab world.
SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)
We (the Palestinian people) insist on being in the same trenches as Syria , and Jordan, Egypt and the rest of the Arab world.
SUPER CAPTION: Yasser Arafat, Palestinian President
But Tlass's remarks have incensed Palestinian officials, who demand a public apology from the minister.
They also want him to be fired.
Some supporters have even called for Tlass's death as punishment for insulting their leader.
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Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's mausoleum unveiled
1. Wide of presidential band marching near mausoleum
2. Mid shot of grave in mausoleum
3. Wide tilt down from mosque to mausoleum
4. Close up of sign on mausoleum
5. Wide exterior of guard outside mausoleum
6. Mid of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas (in red tie) and Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad arriving at the grave
7. Mid of mausoleum
8. Mid of Abbas laying wreath at mausoleum
9. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president:
We will continue with our quest to have the body of our martyr and leader Yasser Arafat re-buried in Jerusalem, where he always wanted to be buried; in Jerusalem, where he was born, In Jerusalem where he struggled. And now we all struggle to stay true to our pledge to establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, god willing.
10. Wide of mausoleum
11. Mid of Abbas leaving
12. Tilt down mausoleum
STORYLINE:
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas unveiled a mausoleum for Yasser Arafat on Saturday, in a pomp-filled ceremony that helped him draw on the continued popularity of his iconic predecessor as he headed into peace talks with Israel.
The mausoleum, made of glass and beige Jerusalem stone, is surrounded on three sides by water, and a piece of rail track is entombed underneath the former Palestinian leader's grave.
The water and piece of track are meant to symbolise the temporary nature of the grave, officials said, with Palestinians planning to rebury their leader one day in Jerusalem, their hoped-for capital.
Arafat died in November 11, 2004 in a French military hospital and was buried on the grounds of his West Bank headquarters, now used by Abbas.
The mausoleum measures 11 metres by 11 metres (120 square feet) to mark the day of his death. A mosque was built next to the tomb, and an Arafat museum is to open next year.
During the ceremony, Abbas laid a wreath in the colours of the Palestinian flag on the tombstone and honoured his one-time rival with a moment of silence.
In a brief speech Abbas pledged to reclaim part of Jerusalem for his people.
The fate of the city, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as a capital, is one of the most explosives issues in peace talks, expected to resume after a US-hosted Mideast conference in Annapolis, Maryland, later this month.
We will continue with our quest to have the body of our martyr and leader Yasser Arafat re-buried in Jerusalem, where he always wanted to be buried; in Jerusalem, where he was born, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said.
In another reference to Jerusalem, the tower of the mosque next to the mausoleum is topped by a laser light pointing to the city, just a few miles away, said Mohammed Ishtayeh, head of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction, which built the site.
Drawing on the legacy of the charismatic Arafat may give a boost to Abbas as he heads to the Annapolis conference, expected to begin on November 26.
The somber Abbas does not enjoy the wild popularity of Arafat.
Abbas also faces a stiff challenge from the Islamic militant Hamas which seized control of Gaza by force in June, and claims he does not have the mandate to negotiate for the Palestinians.
In Saturday's speech, Abbas drew on the Palestinians' strong emotional ties to Arafat.
Now we all struggle to stay true to our pledge to establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, god willing, Abbas said.
On Sunday, the third anniversary of Arafat's death, a large rally is to be held at the West Bank compound, followed by a similar gathering Monday in Gaza.
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GAZA STRIP: YASSER ARAFAT WELCOMES HAMAS DELEGATION
Arabic/Eng/Nat
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Wednesday sent a public show of defiance to Israel by welcoming members of the militant Islamic group Hamas to a meeting in Gaza.
Israel has demanded Arafat crush the guerrilla group which it blames for last month's suicide bombing in Jerusalem that killed 16 people.
At Gaza's border with Egypt, meanwhile, demonstrators burned the Israeli flag, angered by Israel's security closures in Gaza and the West Bank.
Around fifteen-hundred irate Palestinians gathered at the Israeli-controlled Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Wednesday.
The demonstrators - who included Hamas activists and followers of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement - set light to the Israeli flag, protesting against Israel's ongoing
blockade.
Israel imposed security closures on the West Bank and Gaza and froze tax revenues due to the Palestinian Authority after the July 30 suicide bombings in Jerusalem that killed 16 people, including the two bombers.
The protest coincided with the start of a two-day dialogue between Arafat's Palestinian Authority and opposition groups, including the Muslim militant group Hamas.
The two sessions, on Wednesday in Gaza and on Thursday in the West Bank, are designed to present a united Palestinian front against the policies of Israel's government.
Speaking shortly before the meeting got underway, Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Sha'ath said it was a positive step towards ending the unrest.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
This is a very important part of democracy, dialogue between our parties, that is very necessary during the time of siege, during the time of difficulties, during the time of hunger and during the time of determination to serve the peace process. And therefore, this is a very important meeting.
SUPER CAPTION: Nabil Sha'ath, Palestinian Planning Minister
Arafat, politically weakened by charges of widespread corruption and the collapse of the peace talks with Israel, has resisted Israeli demands to arrest and disarm Hamas activists.
In Wednesday's conference, he shared the podium with speakers from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and smaller radical Palestinian factions.
Delivering the final speech, he said the Palestinians would stand united against the Israeli government's sanctions.
SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)
What is actually meant is not security, what is meant is starving the Palestinian people and making them bow down. Why starve the Palestinians? Why force them to kneel? They think we will submit to their commands, I say to them, and I say to you that the Palestinians are heroes.
SUPER CAPTION: Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Leader
The move to embrace rather than rein in Hamas was condemned in Jerusalem.
David Bar Ilan, senior aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the terrorists should be caste out rather than encouraged.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
What is needed is an all out war against terrorism so that the peace process can continue. To instead try and appease and placate the terrorist organisations is to give them the kind of respectability and legitimacy that only makes it easier for them to continue with their terrorist acts and think they can do so with impunity.
SUPER CAPTION: David Bar Ilan, Senior Aide to Benjamin Netanyahu
Arafat has staked his political survival on peace with Israel.
Despite his present bitterness, he is unlikely to cut off the option of negotiating peace with a future, more moderate Israeli government by engaging in violence now.
But the Muslim militant group Hamas - which is staunchly opposed to the peace agreements with Israel - is believed to command the support of up to 30 percent of Palestinians.
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biography Yasser Arafat 1929 08 24 2004 11 11 ياسر عرفات
GAZA: YASSER ARAFAT: PALESTINIAN'S CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS
Eng/Nat
Young Santas riding PLO police motorcycles arrived in the Gaza Strip Thursday to be greeted with hearty kisses from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Palestinians in the Gaza are celebrating their first Christmas in their own homeland.
Those joining Arafat in festivities claimed the celebration was as important as the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.
For the young children of Gaza who are used to poverty, suffering and a well armed security force, the visit of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat with Christmas gifts came as a welcomed surprise.
Palestinian police not only brought Arafat to the Latin Patriarchale school but they also escorted Santa Claus himself.
Although Arafat is a Muslim, he visited the Christian school in Gaza and was treated to singing and praise.
The children hailed Arafat a hero who has brought peace and celebration to their lives.
Throughout his public life Arafat has worked hard to instill a love of children as part of his public relations image.
As he presented gifts to the young pupils of the Christian school, delighted children responded eagerly to his attentions.
SOUNDBITE:
We should never forget that Christmas means peace and gathering and nice peoples.
Let's all pray to god , spread peace in our beloved Palestine under the leadership of Yasser Arafat.
SUPER CAPTION: Latin Patriarchale School Pupil.
The Christian community in Gaza is small but strong.
Most of the children attend the Patriarchale School in Gaza City.
SOUNDBITE:
There are three thousand Orthodox and 150 Catholics in Gaza, in the school we have 150 children.
SUPER CAPTION: Sister Marabel Mohana, Latin Patriarchale School.
The Christian community lives within the largely Muslim fundamentalist population of Gaza, yet church leaders claim to suffer no discrimination based on their religious differences from the Muslim majority.
SOUNDBITE:
Now everyone has the right to know his religion and we are doing so. There is no problem for religion.
SUPER CAPTION: Father Jahel Awad.
Church leaders are trying hard to counter a decline in Christian membership in the Holy Land comprising of Israel, The West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Of the estimated 150 thousand in the Holy Land, three thousand reside in Gaza, but that number continues to decline as more and more turn away from the Christian faith.
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eupribeag.com (PS) Palestine's capital Ramallah - Yasser Arafat mausoleum
Yasser Arafat established his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah. Although considered an interim solution, Ramallah became the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority, now officially known as the State of Palestine.
West Bank - Arafat Apologises To Students
T/I: 11:01:13
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat has apologised to university students on the West Bank for having the police break up a demonstration on their campus last Saturday (30/3). Arafat was flanked by armed guards and wearing what appeared to be a bullet proof vest.
SHOWS:
NABLUS, WEST BANK 5/4
Pro-Arafat parade through city;
Banner with smiling Yasser Arafat;
Soldiers on hilltop above university;
University building;
Plainclothes security guard;
Arafat arrives;
Arafat onto stage receiving a bouquet of flowers from student;
WS of crowd shouting support for Arafat;
Arafat saluting;
Arafat making V sign;
Crowd chanting support;
Arafat telling a crowd of students that he had made a mistake and that he hopes that they will forgive him;
Applause from crowd;
Arafat joins in the chanting;
VS crowd;
2.12
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Israeli tanks surround Arafat's headquarters
1. Tank blocking road near Palestinian Leader, Yasser Arafat's, headquarters
2. Side shot of tank
3. Tank driving along road
4. Tanks parked
5. Close up tank and soldier
6. Tank
7. Wide shot tank pan to another tank in side street
8. Israeli soldiers in street
9. Soldiers approaching apartment block
10. Soldiers going inside
11. Soldiers taking up positions in street
12. APC positioned nearby
13. Palestinian children looking from apartment window and waving
14. More of soldiers occupying building
STORYLINE:
Israeli soldiers stormed and occupied the home of the Palestinian West Bank intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi on Friday.
IDF soldiers supported by armoured personnel carriers with heavy machine guns surrounded the apartment block in which he lived.
He was not there at the time.
Elsewhere, Israeli forces overlooking Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah were reinforced, as were a number of other Israeli positions in and around the West Bank town.
Palestinian political activist Mustafa Barghouti, who lives near Tirawi in Ramallah's Tira neighborhood, said the Israeli army had re-occupied about 50 percent of the town.
He said that the tanks were very close and paralysing the city. They are not just closing the main roads in and out but they're inside the neighborhoods cutting access to schools and kindergartens.
Israeli forces were upgrading their presence around Arafat's office in reaction to Thursday night's attack in the northern city of Hadera where a Palestinian gunman opened fire with an M-16 assault rifle.
Six people were killed and 30 injured, Israeli police said.
A Palestinian militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.
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Palestinians mark 15th anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death
(11 Nov 2019) LEAD IN:
Hundreds of Palestinians gathered in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday to mark 15th anniversary of death of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas paid tribute to the former leader, who died aged 75 in 2004.
STORY-LINE:
Hundreds of Palestinians gathered at Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's tomb in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday to mark 15th anniversary of his death.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived to the place of the tomb to pay his respects.
He told the crowd that Those thousands of martyrs from our people who sacrificed their lives for God and for the Palestinian cause, they did that for the sole purpose of liberating Palestine and we are still on their covenant and will continue to do so until the liberating of Palestine.
Arafat died on November 11 2004 at a French military hospital, a month after falling ill at his west Bank headquarters.
A grassroots activist, he took over chairmanship of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) transforming it into a dynamic force that made the Palestinian cause known worldwide.
Arafat led fellow PLO fighters to Beirut in 1970 after they were driven out by King Hussein.
A series of attacks by various Palestinian factions were carried out in the following years, one of which included the murder of 11 of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
Arafat never discussed the attacks and his level of involvement was always disputed.
In 1982, he fled Beirut after Israel invited Lebanon to try and crush the PLO, he traveled to Tunisia and went into isolation.
It was in Tunisia that he secretly married his 28-year-old secretary, Suha Tawil, their daughter Zahwa was born in July, 1995, in Paris.
One of Arafat's most noted political achievements was his signing, along with Israel, of the Oslo Peace Accord in 1993, giving him control of most of the Gaza strip, and 27 percent of the West Bank.
He shook hands with the then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn in front of Bill Clinton, who was the American President at the time.
On July 1, 1994, he returned form exile, setting foot on Palestinian soil for the first time in 26 years.
On December 10, 1994 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres.
By 2000, the Peace Accord had collapsed and Arafat struggled to keep Israelis and Palestinians committed to peace after Rabin's assassination five years earlier.
Violent attacks were exchanged in the years following between Palestinians and Israelis and there were calls by Western leaders, most notably then-US President George W Bush, for Arafat to resign as President of the Palestinian authority.
Although he ceded some power in 2003 to the first Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, he resisted calls for him to resign and remained leader until 2004, when he eventually fell ill.
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President Abbas returns to Ramallah, visits Arafat's tomb
(2 Dec 2012)
AGENCY POOL
1. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas standing during military ceremony
2. Abbas standing as band plays at ceremony
3. Abbas walking on red carpet
4. Abbas talking to Palestinian officials
5. Wide of Abbas arriving at grave of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat
6. Abbas walking towards grave
7. Abbas laying wreath at Arafat's grave
8. Wide of Abbas standing by Arafat's grave
AP TELEVISION NEWS
9. Pan from outdoor screen to crowd
10. Various of Abbas being escorted by officers through cheering crowd
11. Pull out from Abbas on stage to crowd
12. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President:
Our great nation Palestine has achieved an historic achievement in the United Nations. And the 29th of November 2012 has become a sign of a positive turn in the struggle on the path to our homeland.
13. Wide of crowd
14. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President:
Yes, to the state of Palestine, yes to the freedom of Palestine, yes to the independence of Palestine, no to aggression, settlements and occupation.
15. Wide of crowds cheering
16. Abbas on stage with children
STORYLINE:
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas returned home to the West Bank and a hero's welcome on Sunday after winning a resounding endorsement for Palestinian independence at the United Nations (UN).
Some 5,000 people thronged a square outside Abbas' government headquarters in Ramallah.
Many hoisted Palestinian flags and balloons in the colours of the flag.
Abbas told the crowd yes to the state of Palestine, yes to the freedom of Palestine, yes to the independence of Palestine, no to aggression, settlements and occupation.
Palestine has achieved an historic achievement in the United Nations, he said.
The 29th of November 2012 has become a sign of a positive turn in the struggle on the path to our homeland, Abbas added.
The United Nations voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem as a non-member observer state.
The Palestinians' upgrade passed at the General Assembly 138-9, with 41 abstentions last week.
The Western-backed Palestinian president turned to the United Nations after four years of deadlock in Middle East peace efforts.
Abbas has said he hoped the UN bid will help restart frozen peace talks with Israel over a future Palestinian state.
But he refused to negotiate so long as Israeli settlement construction continues.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said peace talks must resume immediately, but without preconditions.
Netanyahu announced earlier in the week a decision to build three thousand more homes in the West Bank.
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GAZA: YASSER ARAFAT
Arabic/Nat
September 13 was supposed to be Palestinian independence day.
Instead, a deadline for establishing a state was missed for the second time in 16 months, and Palestinian leaders desperately tried to maintain some credibility by announcing gradual steps toward statehood, including general elections.
An Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty, which would have defined the terms for Palestinian statehood, was originally due Wednesday, but talks are deadlocked over control of Jerusalem holy sites.
Israel has warned the Palestinians against unilateral steps, and over the weekend, the PLO's top policy-making body, the Central Council, decided to postpone a statehood proclamation at least until November 15.
Arafat said on Tuesday that the Palestinians delayed the declaration for at least five weeks in order to show the United States - the talks main sponsor and Israel good faith.
The Palestinians wanted to avoid any accusation by both the United States or Israel that we are abandoning the peace process, he said in Gaza.
Arafat is wary of a unilateral declaration because a state in the disjointed territories he controls would not be viable.
At the same time, he has promised his people a state by the end of the year.
Gradual steps toward statehood could provide a way out of his dilemma.
Many Palestinians had been skeptical from the start about prospects for reaching a peace treaty by September 13.
In seven years of peace talks, both on interim accords and the final treaty, not a single deadline was met.
The main sticking point in the negotiations is a 36-acre walled compound in Jerusalem's Old City.
It is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, site of their biblical Temples, and to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, marked by two mosques built on the spot where Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
SOUNDBITE: (Arabic)
As you know the Palestinian Central Council gave a chance to the negotiations and extended the period to the coming November 15 which is the anniversary of our independent declaration in Algiers in 1988 as everyone knows there is an American request to give a chance for negotiations for the coming five weeks and we gave this chance in order to avoid any accusations by both the United States or Israel that we are leaving the peace process.
SUPER CAPTION: Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Liberation Organisation Chairman
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A look at Arafat's potential successors
SHOTLIST
Ramallah - 20 July 2004
1. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) heading to cabinet meeting
Abu Dis - 9 September 2003
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ahmed Qureia, Palestinian Prime Minister (statement made when he was announced as a nominee to be Palestinian prime minister):
I want this position to work for peace. To work for peace there are conditions. I want the Israelis to be ready to work for peace.
Ramallah - 20 July 2004
3. Qureia in photo opportunity with local governors
4. Close up Qureia
5. Qureia shaking hands with local governors
Ramallah - 29 April 2003
6. Pan of interior of Palestinian Legislative Council
7. UPSOUND: (Arabic) Qureia, as PLC Speaker declaring the government of Abu Mazen (also known as Abbas Mahmoud)
8. Abbas Mahmoud (Abu Mazen) being congratulated
Tunis, 1995
9. Abbas being embraced by Arafat
Location unknown
10. UPSOUND: (English) Mahmoud Abbas, Former Palestinian Prime Minister
I believe there will be agreement but I don't know when, but I think it will be achieved as soon as possible
Ramallah 2003
11. Abbas being appointed Prime Minister, sitting with Arafat and Qureia during meeting with cabinet
Ramallah - 7 September 2003
12. Abbas leaving his office a day after resigning
13. SOUNDBITE: (Arabic) Mahmoud Abbas, Former Palestinian Prime Minister:
It is premature to talk about it (forming a new government). My resignation is final.
Gaza - 28 August 2004
14. Various of Palestinian Foreign minister Nabil Shaath arriving at tents, visiting Palestinian hunger strikers at a camp
15. Shaath surrounded by journalists
16. SOUNDBITE: (English) Nabil Shaath, Palestinian Foreign minister:
The prisoners' case is something that the prisoners themselves have decided.
Paris - 26 May 2004
17. Former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, former Palestinian Foreign Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier
Amman - 17 May 2004
17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Yasser Abed Rabbo, Former Palestinian Foreign Minister:
This is the wildest destruction we have ever witnessed since 1967. (talking of Israeli tanks which cut off Palestinian refugee camp, Rafah)
Ramallah - 18 August 2003
18. Former Palestinian Security Chief Mohammed Dahlan in meeting
19. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed Dahlan, Former Palestinian Security Chief:
We will resume our talks tomorrow, there are many issues that are in dispute and our meeting with Nizaf and the agreed principle of the pullout.
Ramallah - 18 April 2004
20. Set up of Jibril Rajoub, Former Palestinian National Security Adviser:
SOUNDBITE (English) Jibril Rajoub, Former Palestinian National Security Adviser
It's state terror, it s a crime and I think it will escalate the situation and this was not possible for the Israelis to assasinate Rantisi and Ahmed Yassin without receiving a green light from the US administration. (statement made on the day of funeral for assasinated Hamas leader Rantisi)
Tel Aviv - 6 June 2004
21. Marwan Barghouti, Palestinian, former head of Arafat's political organisation, Fatah, being taken out of prison van and escorted by police
22. Wide of court
Israel Prison Authority - location unconfirmed - 17 August 2004
23. Computer image showing Barghouti in his cell
STORYLINE
Political analysts began speculating Thursday over the potential successor to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the event that the 75-year-old's deteriorating health forces his replacement.
Israel agreed to allow Arafat to be flown abroad for treatment Thursday, leaving his compound for the first time in nearly three years, after his health took a turn for the worse on Wednesday.
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