Palestinians Marks 37th Anniversary of Palestinian Revolution

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 02, 2002

Palestinians Marks 37th Anniversary of Palestinian Revolution

The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza celebrated Tuesday the 37th anniversary of the Palestinian revolution, which coincided with the first day of the New Year, amid hopes upon implementing the ceasefire deal with Israel and establishing the independent Palestinians state.

Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Chairman Yasser Arafat lit the flame in the center of the West Bank town of Ramallah to mark the anniversary before thousands of his supporters, who chanted slogans to show their full support to him.

Meanwhile, PNA officials sounded more optimistic over the return of the U.S. Mideast peace envoy Anthony Zinni to the area within the coming days to help implement the ceasefire agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.

"We were told by U.S. State Department officials that the U.S. understands the Palestinian efforts to reinforce the ceasefire deal," said Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

However, Ahmed Abdel Rahman, PNA cabinet secretary general, said that the Israeli government would intensify its "escalated military actions" on the Palestinian territories to make Zinni's mission a failure.

"The main obstacle for Zinni to succeed in his mission is the repeated Israeli violations of any ceasefire deal," said Abdel Rahman, adding that the Palestinians from their side had halted all armed and suicide attacks against Israel

In his televised speech to the Palestinian people and the world to mark the New Year and the revolution anniversary on Monday, Arafat called upon the Israeli and the Jewish people to reach peace with the Palestinians.

"I call for a bright future for your (Israelis) children and our children to live in peace, forgiveness and coexistence on the holy land and in all the Middle East," said Arafat in the speech addressed from his office in Ramallah.

Arafat said: "We raise our hands to make the peace of the braves and end the reality of occupation, settlements, aggressive crimes and siege."

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has turned down a plan for Israeli President Moshe Katzav to appear before the Palestinian legislature and propose a one-year "Hudna" or truce, a Muslim concept of a ceasefire.

Erekat told Xinhua that Sharon's policy is becoming clear that he does not want peace and does not want to implement the ceasefire deals, but wants violence to continue.

"This indicates that Sharon does not have a plan for peace, the only plan he has in his hands is a plan of war to destroy the Palestinian (National) Authority," said Erekat.

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