The 15th anniversary of Arafat's death .. Palestinians lack the symbolic status of "Abu Ammar"

Palestinians on Monday marked the 15th anniversary of the departure of their historic leader Yasser Arafat (Abu Ammar) amid a lack of symbolic status.

Since Arafat's departure, the Palestinians have suffered from a continuing decline in their cause, a deadlock in peace with Israel, and an internal divide since mid-2007 between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

An official event was held at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah, during which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas laid a wreath at the tomb of his predecessor Arafat in the presence of senior Palestinian officials.

In a speech to dozens of Palestinians gathered on the occasion, Abbas said that "the martyr Arafat has established the constants of the Palestinian people that no one can give up and we cannot give up."

"We do not accept to give up our cause and the dream of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state and achieve their constants. We will not leave our country and we will stay here to protect the land of Palestine."

Abbas reiterated his intention to hold legislative elections followed by a presidential election to be held in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

"We expect everyone to agree to the elections because they protect our legitimacy, our cause and our existence, and we are under all circumstances going towards achieving the elections," he said.

The last Palestinian general election was held in 2006 in which Hamas won a parliamentary majority, a year before Abbas won a presidential election to succeed Arafat.

Arafat died on this day in 2004 at the age of 75, while receiving treatment in a French hospital with a mysterious illness, while Palestinians accuse Israel of being behind the assassination.

"All the evidence shows that Israel is responsible for the assassination of Arafat," said General Tawfiq Tirawi, head of the Palestinian investigation committee.

Fifteen years after his departure, Arafat remains the greatest symbol of the Palestinians and his portraits are always present in his military uniform and his Palestinian keffiyeh in various popular and official events.

Chairman of the Yasser Arafat Foundation, a member of the Fatah Central Committee, Nasser al-Kidwa, said that "the longer the interval between Arafat's presence and death, the closer he becomes to the Palestinian people."

Al-Kidwa said in remarks to reporters in Ramallah that "the difficulty of things in the Palestinian arena is another reason to remember Arafat and perpetuate his career as a symbol of all Palestinians at home and abroad."

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO's executive committee, said that Arafat "has always been the title and symbol of Palestine and has never defended his just cause and stood up against injustice and tyranny."

In a statement, Ashrawi stressed that Arafat "left a legacy and a steady history that will not go away."

Several public and private events were held to commemorate Arafat in the West Bank as hundreds of Palestinians flocked to his shrine to lay wreaths on him.

Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 with former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres following the signing of the Oslo peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel.

But the peace process quickly stalled, leading to a Palestinian uprising in September 2000. Israel besieged Arafat's headquarters until his health deteriorated further, and he was transferred to France for treatment, where he died.