“Sign the Papers, You Dog!”

Translator's Introduction: I translate this article by Jafar al-Bukli, a Tunisian leftist writer at the Lebanese Al-Akhbar. Al-Bukli focuses his writings on the recent history of the Arab World and its various American puppet regimes, especially on stories which have been intentionally buried and forgotten lest they damage the pretend-prestige of these common highway-robbers who gained power only through collaboration with imperialism.¹

[The original article by Jafar al-Bukli was published in Al-Akhbar on 19 December 2017 under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.]

“Sign the papers, you dog!”

Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, barked this demeaning phrase into the face of Yasser Arafat, leader of the PLO.² This happened in front of Yitzhak Rabin, the PM of Israel, his FM Shimon Peres, and the American and Russian FMs Warren Christopher and Andrei Kozyrev.

Arafat's face grew red due to this public humiliation, his hands and lips trembling. He was angry, defeated, his supposed Arab brother had humiliated him to appease Israel.

On 4 May 1994, the large expo hall in Nasr City was packed with people who came to to witness the historic signing of the "peace treaty" between Israel and Palestine in accordance with the Oslo Accords.³ Hosni Mubarak had chosen May 4th, his own birthday, to be the date on which the Palestinian Cause was to be liquidated. The Egyptian president also took great care to invite all the notables of Egyptian politics, and so invited his ministers, generals, the speakers of both houses and the committee chairmen thereof, conservative politicians, political party leaders, and a selected bunch of writers and artists and journalists. Mubarak didn't forget the clergy, and so invited Pope Shenouda III and Sheikh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy. Furthermore, Mubarak invited the General-Secretary of the Arab League, Esmat Abdel-Meguid, an Egyptian, who then tried to invent excuses not to attend. He said that, as the leader of the Arab League, he was bound to represent the Arab World, some of whose countries were opposed to the Oslo Accords. Meguid heard the sharp voice of his president over the telephone: "Whom are trying to appease, Esmat? Colonel Gaddafi or Hafiz Assad?" Esmat was there on time in his designated seat in the front row.

The event designers had prepared to make this event a true theatrical spectacle. And indeed, floodlights lit the stage, dreamy opera music was played, and the backdrop was decorated with ancient Egyptian motifs of pyramids and sphinxes. A large ornate marble desk with gilded fringes and a single chair was placed on stage. Everything here was attention-grabbing and impressive. The protagonists of the play then ascended the stage one by one: Mubarak, his FM Amr Moussa, the American, the Russian, and then the happy newly-weds: Rabin, Perez, Arafat, and Abbas. The onlookers clapped warmly.

After long-winded speeches about "brave peace", "the promised land", "land of the prophets", all the thanks and the smiles and the kisses, the serious part commenced.

Yasser Arafat sat at the gilded table first. He leafed through the sheaf of papers and began to visibly hesitate. He appeared to be searching for a specific paper. His search took an uncomfortably long time, and the others began to look at him with questioning glances. He frowned, righted his kufiyya, and got to signing. But his grimacing demeanor appeared foreboding, like that of a bride that got tricked at her own wedding.

It was Rabin's turn next, and as he looked at the papers, his face filled with an expression of rage. Instead of signing, Rabin looked behind him, calling his FM, Peres, to show him something in the papers. This was all happening over live broadcast, having been advertised as one of the defining moments of the 20th century by all the propaganda apparatuses. It was all going horribly off-script. The viewers looked with astonishment at this wedding where the happy couple looked unwilling, nay, close to blows.

Peres looked at the papers, and his face also changed. He then strode towards Mubarak and whispered something in his ear, and the same facial expression also spread to him. Mubarak shot a glare of death at Arafat, who was acting in a nonchalant manner, his hands behind his back, eyebrows raised, lips pouted, pretending not to notice, unwilling to look at anyone.

Peres whispered the Egyptian president's response to Rabin, who then signed the papers and got up with a dour face. He shook hands with everyone except Arafat.

The reason behind this crisis was that Arafat didn't sign all the papers. He signed the treaty, but not the supplemental maps which showed the Palestinian Authority's jurisdiction areas in Gaza and Jericho. During the negotiations, the question of precise territorial borders had not been conclusively settled, and was delayed to a later date, with an agreement on the principles and an understanding that the details will be negotiated later. Arafat had demanded that Rabin write a statement to that effect, which was to be attached to the maps, in which the Israelis would concur that the question is not settled, and that the maps were merely provisional and open for later negotiations. Rabin had accepted this demand but reneged on it, and Arafat didn't find the statement with the maps, and so he didn't sign them.

Rabin felt that this trickster Arafat was trying to slip his way out of the whole treaty. Rabin boiled with anger, and complained to Mubarak, who began making hand gestures to calm him down lest a large scandal erupt before the spectators. Everyone gathered around Arafat and tried to convince him to sign, to no avail. He remained hard-headed and carried an air of indifference. This became very embarrassing, and so Warren Christopher grabbed the microphone and went on a spiel of platitudes about peace and doves and harmony and understanding, attempting to draw attention away from what's going on immediately behind his back. However, the gaunt man with the sharp, unpleasant face proved incapable of engaging the crowd for too long, and the crowd's eyes eventually wandered away and stared past him at the comedic scene.

[Translator's note: The pathetic scene in question. Arafat is being harangued into signing the treaty despite Rabin's broken promise. The scene is rendered positively hilarious by the fact that they're all boiling mad but must keep the pretense in front of the live audience and the live cameras.]

Mubarak thought up a gambit: he'd humiliate Arafat into signing. He whispered to the emcee, directing him to announce loudly that Arafat is now to sign the treaty maps. The announcement was made, but Arafat was possessed with a stubborn demon, and so said loudly: "No, no, no," repeating the word thrice for emphasis. Arafat's usual charisma earned him applause here, as the crowd were taken by his demeanor, even though they didn't know what it was to which he said "no". The whole scene was a trainwreck.

One of Christopher's aides climbed onstage to tell him that it's gotten out of hand, and that he should hasten a close to this whole charade. The director must regain control of the cast, and the script must be put back on track with no ad-libbing. A recess was called, and the players went backstage to continue their dispute away from the prying eyes of the public and the media. Mubarak's rage exploded, and so he screamed at Arafat at the top of his voice:

“Sign the papers, you dog!”

Arafat found himself surrounded by enemies, and looked like he was about to burst into tears. He gathered himself and pleaded with Mubarak:

“I will sign the papers, but only out of my respect for Egypt and its president, and not out of anything else!”⁴

This did not cause Mubarak to soften his tone. He gruffly ordered Arafat to get up on stage and do it immediately, and Arafat did so. He tried to get his dignity back by writing on the map next to his signature “under negotiation according the the attached statement”.

The audience clapped uproariously for the happy ending.⁵ President Mubarak got his share of laudation. The Palestinian old man flashed a smile and waved his hands in a victory sign∎