Palestinian buys Yasser Arafat’s official car, says it is for keeps
Mercedes was sold at auction before new owner pitched a higher price to make it his own
Twelve years after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s death, a Palestinian man has bought his car as a souvenir, pledging that it is for keeps once it is restored.
“What a pure blessing it was to keep this souvenir from Palestinian leader Arafat. I found a diamond in the rough,” Mohammad Salem Al Shafei said.
The official state car, a 1998 Mercedes Benz S600, was one of Arafat’s convoy of ten cars that had been abandoned in the yard of Al Mukata’a government headquarters in Ramallah for years.
Al Shafei who is the chief of the Nablus-based Salem Dynamometer Station, a vehicle inspection centre, said the car was sold to the highest bidder in a sealed bid auction.
He later bought the car from the winning bidder for a much higher price that he refused to disclose and found that it was not in perfect shape and needed a lot of maintenance to keep it running well.
Members of the public congratulated Al Shafei on owning Arafat’s car and urged him to keep the car in shape and pass it to his descendants as a souvenir.
“The car will not be sold or shared with anyone else under any circumstances,” he said. “This rare souvenir is the most valuable item I have ever had.”
Thousands of artefacts from Arafat’s life were gathered in 2011 for a new museum in Ramallah and Arafat’s home in Gaza City was opened as a museum after Hamas, which has ruled the coastal strip since 2007, handed it back to the rival Fatah party of Arafat.
On November 11, 2004, Arafat died of a mysterious illness but many Palestinians believe that Israeli agents poisoned him. He was buried near Al Mukata’a.
Palestinians donated thousands of his personal belongings, including photographs, pistols and scarves to the museum. Palestinians consider Arafat’s possessions to be part of their national heritage and symbols of the struggle against the Israeli occupation.