Awad, Palestin's freedom fighter

Grace Emilia, Contributor, Jakarta

In the last three years, almost every foreign diplomat who has arrived in or left Indonesia has been greeted or bid farewell by Ribhi Y. Awad, the dean of the diplomatic corps here and also the chairman of the Arab Ambassadorial Council in Jakarta.

Having spent 10 years as the Palestinian Ambassador to Indonesia, Awad is not just a senior diplomat, but also a life- long freedom fighter. War and conflict have been his fate since he was born in Jerusalem in 1940, the fourth of nine children.

When he was six he was collecting spent bullet cartridges used by his father and uncles.

His mother, he added, is also a great leader. When the family fled to Bethlehem after Jerusalem was bombarded by the Israeli army, she led her children out of Jerusalem because her husband was in the mountains with other fighters.

"It was winter and it was windy and rainy. We traveled in darkness from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. We only had two or three pairs of trousers so we wore all our clothes, and we brought some bread and olive oil to survive."

When the United Nations tried to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians in 1949 by distributing powdered milk and sugar, they were already on the edge of famine.

"So my mother had an idea and asked my eldest brother to mix some lemons with sugar and water and sell it, as a source of livelihood. And I was asked to carry people's baskets from the market to their homes to make a little money," says Awad, who believes that almost every Palestinian who has money today will use most of it for food because of these memories of starvation.

"We just try to compensate. That's why I love cooking and often cook for myself."

After graduating from the School of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University, the young Awad began his career in the media when he joined the Fatah group, which became the backbone of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) before Arafat took over the PLO in 1969.

Awad was an editor for Fatah's newspaper and radio station, and was responsible for coordinating with the international press.

"My job was to guide foreign journalists who wanted to meet with Arafat, which I had to do in total secrecy because I didn't want to give away the location where Arafat was in hiding. So I usually took them at midnight on a very secret trip, so they could speak with Arafat about our aims and our movement," says Awad, who says he survived two assassination attempts when he was in Jordan in the 1970s.

Awad served as the Palestinian press envoy in Beirut, Damascus and Jordan, before serving as ambassador to Egypt, Kenya, Aljazair, Finland, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.

During his term in the Emirates, Arafat gave Awad the name "Bulldozer", which he is very proud of.

"I got this title because of my energetic and dynamic work in mobilizing support for the PLO, especially during my five years in the Emirates. Unfortunately, Ariel Sharon also has this title," says Awad.

Loyal as he is, Awad said he has not always seen eye to eye with Arafat. He cites the Oslo accords in 1993 as an example. At that time, The Jakarta Post ran a headline saying he was skeptical of the Oslo accords.

"I was critical of the Oslo Accords in 1993. At that time I was in Indonesia, and The Jakarta Post put it in a headline that the Palestinian envoy was skeptical of these accords.

"So I was expecting Arafat to relieve me of my duties when he came to Jakarta after visiting Beijing from Oslo, and I told Arafat of my reasons for being skeptical. Luckily he didn't make it an issue," remembers Awad.

Such vocalness put him on the bad side of then president Anwar Sadat of Egypt, after he arranged demonstrations of Palestinian students against Sadat in Cairo.

"I also campaigned on the radio and held press conferences denouncing him after he struck a practical solution with Israel, thus leaving his war partners Syria and PLO behind," says Awad.

Although a warrior, Awad is ready to befriend anybody, especially those who sympathize with the Palestinian struggle. He was recently invited by the Indonesian Christian Church Regional Synod of West Java to speak about the humanitarian and national aspects of the struggle in Palestine, and also to clarify the perception that exists among many Indonesians that the struggle in Palestine is a religious one.

Awad explained the Palestinian struggle was not a religious one, but a national liberation movement.

"The overwhelming majority of Palestinians are Muslim, while there is a Christian minority. Together we fight for our dignity against Israel. We have martyrs from both the Muslim and Christian sides. One of our well-known martyrs is Kamal Nasser, an executive member and spokesperson of the PLO, but also a poet and a Christian. He was assassinated by Mossad in April 1973, together with his good friend Abu Yusuf An Najjar and wife, Kamal Udwan. All were members of the PLO central committee," says Awad.

Currently, Awad is writing several books about Palestine to be published in Bahasa Indonesia.

"I hope I do not die before the publication of these books. But my ultimate personal ambition is to see and live for at least one year with my 105-year-old mother in Jerusalem and visit my father's grave."

"I also long to smell the fragrance of Jerusalem. When I left Jerusalem, I felt like I was losing something very important in my psyche. I often see my mother in my dreams. The last time I met her was only for one night, three years ago when I had to arrange a meeting between (the then) president Abdurrahman Wahid and President Arafat in Jordan in 2000. It is difficult for me to see her. I'm a member of the Palestine National Council. But in my own land, I have to smuggle myself into Jerusalem in order to see my mother."