Thousands gather for funeral of Palestinian who sought peace

Thousands of Palestinians gathered today for the funeral of Faisal Husseini, who dedicated his life to coexistence with Israel and Palestinian control over traditionally Arab parts of Jerusalem.

Husseini, the top PLO official in Jerusalem who died from a heart attack yesterday, was to be buried in the city’s holiest Muslim shrine, at the side of his father, a legendary military commander killed in a 1948 battle for Jerusalem.

Husseini’s body, accompanied by his family and an entourage led by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, arrived by helicopter in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where thousands of flag-waving Palestinians had gathered.

As the casket was carried off the helicopter on the shoulders of eight Palestinian officers, Arafat saluted and said, ‘‘To heaven, you, the beloved of martyrs.’’

‘‘What can I tell you, we never noticed that Faisal Husseini was a Palestinian official, he was like a father to us,’’ said Fatima Abu-Quse, as she stood outside the headquarters in tears.

‘‘He was constantly trying to solve our problems, especially when we had financial troubles with the Israeli government, he would pay the money from his own pocket,’’ she said.

Husseini was to be buried in a small cemetery reserved for Palestinian notables inside the compound known to Muslims as Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount. It is the most sensitive spot in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a dispute over who will eventually control it helped derail peace talks.

Husseini was a champion of coexistence with Israel, reaching out to the Jews using the Hebrew learned in Israeli jails.

As the top official of the Palestine Liberation Organisation in Jerusalem, his work was to lay his people’s claim to the traditionally Arab parts of the city.

Husseini was the scion of a wealthy Palestinian clan with centuries-old roots in Jerusalem. In 1991, he turned the Orient House, a former hotel owned by his family, into the PLO headquarters in Jerusalem.

That same year, he led the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid peace talks.