JERUSALEM: For most Israelis, the late Yasser Arafat with his trademark black-and-white keffiyeh represents the embodiment of the “arch-terrorist”.

But a minority in Israel look back fondly on the former Palestinian leader — who died 10 years ago this week — as the man who dared to sign an peace accord with the Jewish state.

For decades, any Israeli making contact with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) that Arafat led could be thrown in prison. In 1993, however, all that changed with the Oslo peace accords which transformed the PLO into a legitimate political force.

But if the rapprochement brokered by the Oslo treaty was a welcome development for two peoples wearied by decades of war, the second Palestinian intifada, which began in 2000, reminded Israelis that Arafat remained a formidable adversary, experts said.

“A large majority of Israelis think of Yasser Arafat as the main culprit behind the violence and he undermined the confidence they had in the Palestinians’ desire for peace,” said Anat Kurz, research director at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. Uzi Dayan, a former national security advisor during the Arafat era, is more forthright, calling the Palestinian icon a “terrorist” and a “crook”.

“He was never ready to conclude a deal that would put a final end to the conflict,” Dayan said.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2014