ABBAS UNVEILS SHRINE TO ARAFAT

Palestinians unveil Arafat shrine (GulfNews)
Ramallah: A ceremony was held in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Saturday as Palestinians unveiled a stone mausoleum for Yasser Arafat.

The building, made of glass and beige Jerusalem stone, is surrounded on three sides by water, and a piece of train track was entombed under Arafat's grave.

The water and the track symbolise the mausoleum is temporary and that Arafat, who died in 2004, has not reached his final resting place.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas started proceedings by laying a wreath at Arafat's tomb, at the compound where Arafat spent his last two years besieged by Israeli forces.

In a short speech, Abbas called for the "president and martyr Yasser Arafat to be buried in Jerusalem, which he loved, and where he was born, and which our entire people is determined will be the capital of a Palestinian state."