Success of first US presidential visit to Ramallah secured

Jan 10, 2008, 16:15 GMT

Palestinians walk on deserted streets, blocked by Palestinian police during the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush in the West Bank city of Ramallah, 10 January , 2008. Some 70 Palestinians held the protest as Bush was visiting Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in his Ramallah headquarters EPA/ALAA BADARNEH

Ramallah - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' administration in the West Bank went to great lengths to make the first-ever visit of a US president to the provisional capital of the Palestinian autonomous areas a smooth success.

At least 4,000 Palestinian policemen and security personnel were out on the streets of Ramallah before dawn, hours before President George W. Bush's arrival shortly before 10 am (0800 GMT).

Clad in plain or camouflaged blue uniforms, some of them in capes for protection against the intermittent rain, and armed with semiautomatic rifles, they manned roadblocks set up every several dozen metres on the main road entering Ramallah and leading to Abbas' Muqata'a headquarters.

Members of Abbas' presidential guard in green camouflage swarmed the streets surrounding the compound, which was sealed off hermetically to traffic and pedestrians.

US snipers, although invisible, were also said to be stationed on roofs around the headquarters, with residents being warned not to venture out into the nearby streets, open the blinds or stand on the rooftop of their buildings.

US intelligence and marines, wary of relying entirely on the relatively inexperienced Palestinian security apparatus, oversaw the vast security operation, unprecedented in the history of the Palestinian autonomous areas.

Some 300 journalists who did not fly in with Bush were held up for more than four hours in the courtyard of the Muqata'a in the morning cold, being moved slowly through four different tents to undergo credential checks as well as security and luggage checks, before finally being allowed to enter the news conference hall.

Heavy mist over the West Bank city prevented the presidential helicopter, Marine 1, from landing and Bush was forced to make the short journey from his hotel in Jerusalem to Abbas' presidential compound by motorcade.

In sharp contrast to the expansive, well-orchestrated ceremony staged for Bush at Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport Wednesday, his welcome in Ramallah was simple and low key.

About a dozen members of an honour guard, with no orchestra playing the US and Palestinian national anthems, stood to attention on each side of the red carpet and saluted Bush as he stepped out of his limousine. After a few handshakes and within minutes, he was led inside by Abbas.

Unlike the rest of his 48-hour stay in Israel, Bush's four-hour stop-over in Ramallah, followed by a private tour of Christian holy sites in Bethlehem, did not enjoy the status of an official state visit yet, Palestinians observed.

Some complained that late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat would have been tougher than Abbas, and would have insisted that it did.

In another decision that stood out, Bush also did not visit Arafat's mausoleum at the Muqata'a.

The Bush administration had declared Arafat 'irrelevant' during the first years of the current Palestinian uprising, and boycotted him until his death in November 2004, for what the US and Israel said was his condoning of armed struggle parallel to peace negotiations to achieve Palestinian statehood.

Contrary to expectations and some rumours, a portrait of Arafat nevertheless adorned the podium on which Bush and Abbas made their statements.

In central Ramallah, security forces answering to Abbas meanwhile used clubs and pepper spray to disperse some 200 anti-Bush demonstrators and prevent journalists from covering it.

One person suffered a broken nose, another a broken shoulder, organizer Mustafa Barghouti, of the two-seat, pro-reform Independent Palestine party told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Apart from these few awkward details and a small mishap with the translation of his remarks, the historic visit ended smoothly, with Abbas saying he was 'fully satisfied' with its outcome.

'We are pleased with what we heard from Bush,' his aide Nabil Abu Rudeineh added. 'It was encouraging and comforting.'

But while Bush said he believed Israel and the Palestinians would sign a peace deal before he left office in one year, scepticism in the street remained high.

Reflecting the widespread apathy, 37-year-old kiosk owner Nasser Farid said shortly after Bush's helicopter took off: 'Whether he came or not, it would have made no difference.'