A tense diplomatic row between Israel and El Salvador has been triggered after businessmen in the tiny Central America country, renamed a city square in the capital in honor of late Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat.
Israel is protesting by delaying the return of its ambassador to San Salvador, after a trip to Tel Aviv. Israeli officials described the naming of Arafat Park and the unveiling of a bust of the late leader, who died last November in a French hospital, "hurtful and insulting".
It should be mentioned that many Salvadorans, including President Tony Saca, are of Palestinian descent.
In a statement, Israel's foreign ministry said the renaming of the plaza had caused "dismay".
"No capital has taken [a] similar step to honor the memory of someone whose legacy was so negative," it explained.
Many of those among El Salvador's business community are the descendants of Palestinian immigrants who emigrated to Central America during the 19th century and early 20th century. Saca and the rival he defeated in a presidential election last year, Schafik Handal, are both descended from migrants from the Palestinian West Bank town of Bethlehem.
San Salvador's Palestinian business community privately erected a bust to Arafat on the city's Jerusalem Street, and inaugurated the Arafat Park nearby.
Last year, the same businessmen dedicated Palestine Square in the city, and unveiled a map that placed Israel inside a larger country of Palestine.
Israel called the businessmen "people of ill will" and said it would delay the return to San Salvador of ambassador Yonatan Peled in order to express its displeasure.
El Salvador, which is Spanish for "the savior" - or Jesus Christ - has been wracked by civil war and a succession of natural disasters which have left it physically devastated and psychologically traumatized.
El Salvador is both the most densely populated state on the mainland of the Americas and the most industrialized in Central America. However, social inequality and the fact that the country lies within a seismic zone define much of contemporary El Salvador.
President Elias Antonio (Tony) Saca won a five-year term in presidential elections in March 2004, marking the fourth successive victory for the right-wing Arena party.
"We are making a monument to the maximum leader of the struggle for the liberation of Palestine," said one of the promoters, businessman John Nasser.
The late leader of Palestine, Yasser Arafat, had passionately sought a homeland for his people. He was a heroic freedom fighter who symbolized the national aspirations of the Palestinian people.
"We will struggle from this small country so that Palestine has its own state with its own capital, Jerusalem," he added in reference to Arafat's longtime goal.
In February, the Israeli Embassy issued a communiqué to local newspapers saying that the plaza was "a provocation" that was counterproductive for Salvadoran-Israeli ties. From its earliest attempts to establish itself as an arms exporter, Israel had enjoyed the patronage of El Salvador’s military, which ruled the tiny country, on behalf of a powerful plantation oligarchy.
In 1973, Israel took orders from El Salvador for 18 Dassault Ouragan jet fighter aircraft. Israel had obtained these planes from France for its own use. Refurbished and delivered to El Salvador in 1975, they were the first jet fighters in Central America, representing a considerable jump in the level of military sophistication in a region where war had flared between Honduras and El Salvador in 1969.
Other aircraft ordered from Israel by El Salvador in 1973 included six French-made Fouga Magister trainers and 25 Arava short-take-off-and-landing aircraft. The Salvadorans also bought small arms, ammunition and rocket launchers.
Military links with El Salvador actually began around 1972, when the Israeli Defense Ministry carried out a youth movement development program there. Alongside their arms sales, the Israelis also sent advisers to El Salvador.
Between the 1977 U.S. cutoff and the resumption of U.S. aid in 1981, El Salvador obtained over 80% of its weapons from Israel. By 1979, came the first report that Israeli advisors had been giving the Salvadoran military counterinsurgency training both in Israel and El Salvador.
In March 1985, El Salvador's Deputy Minister of Defense and Public Security Col. Reynaldo Lopez Nuila visited Israel. On New Years Day in 1986, El Salvador's ambassador to Israel presented his credentials to the Israelis.
A month later, Israel's ambassador in El Salvador said, "We will be reinforcing our technical cooperation in the agricultural and community development fields, in which we are considered specialists."
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
