During the whole
year of 1993 [Arafat] concealed from the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid
Conference the existence of the other talks - the secret negotiations in Oslo.
When they found out about this they undertook a sort of rebellion against him.
In this instance too, he refrained from abusing the chairperson of the
delegation, Dr. Haidar Abdel Shafi, who had attacked Arafat in public. Not only
is Dr. Abdel Shafi older than Arafat, but he is also respected as a veteran
Palestinian fighter. Arafat attacked younger members of the delegation instead.
For instance,
Arafat once heard delegation member Saeb Erakat say during a television
interview that he was thinking about resigning from his work in the Palestinian
leadership and that he had plans to sit and write his memoirs. In the presence
of dozens of people from the PLO leadership convened in Amman, Arafat turned to
the younger man and asked him scornfully: "How long will it take you to
write your memoirs, five minutes? And what will you do afterwards?"
Hanan Ashrawi is
another junior associate he publicly humiliated in spite of her outstanding
role in representing the Palestinians at the Madrid conference. When he found
out that she had reservations about his methods of work, he reprimanded her in
the presence of other people, and said flatly: "I appointed you on the
phone, and I can fire you on the phone."
- Danny Rubinstein,
The Mystery of Arafat, p.104;
Pub. Steerforth Press (June 1995); ISBN: 1883642108