SCENES FROM A BURIAL

The Associated Press has some scenes from the burial:

Police fired wildly into the air to keep back the surging crowd. . . . Frantic mourners surged toward the tomb, trampling the olive tree saplings that were planted around the grave according to Islamic tradition. . . .

Earlier, officials tried for 25 minutes to open the helicopter door to remove the coffin onto a jeep that had plowed through the crowd to clear a path. As the coffin was carried toward the gravesite, police jumped on top of it, waved their arms and flashed the victory sign. People chanted, "With our blood and our soul we will redeem you Yasser Arafat!" . . .

A small group of masked gunmen marched into the Muqata, ignoring calls from official Palestine TV not to carry arms or mask faces. . . . On Friday, teenage boys climbed onto the walls of the compound chanting, "Whoever poisoned Arafat, we will drink his blood."

In Israel's capital, "several hundred Arab demonstrators pelted an east Jerusalem police station with stones Thursday night," reports the Jerusalem Post. The Arab News reports that "black smoke from burning tires rose across the Gaza Strip and gunmen fired into the air in grief."

Such is the Palestinian civilization of which Yasser Arafat was the architect.