Yasser Arafat acknowledged to Palestinian lawmakers that “mistakes were made”, resulting in a Reuters headline going so far as to say that the chairman “urges change.” Most media coverage of his speech was more skeptical–for example, the LA Times didn’t bother giving Arafat much prominence against a Sharon speech made shortly afterwards.
Arafat quickly proved his skeptics right. The Jerusalem Post reports that the PA chairman is refusing to sign new anti-corruption laws presented to him by members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. The Post writes:
The legislators gave Arafat till Tuesday to sign laws passed by the council, the official added.
“Wednesday’s speech was his chance to… implement the resolutions of the council… the whole world was watching him,” said legislator Ziad Abu Amr.“Arafat intends to present the legislators Tuesday with a letter stating what he intends to do,” but is unlikely to sign the laws, a PA official said. The speech was only given to pacify the PLC, he added.
