RAMALLAH, West Bank — For Palestinians, Ariel Sharon has long symbolized the iron fist of Israel.
He is remembered as the leader who fathered the hated Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and who besieged Palestinian cities at the height of the intifada. He is loathed for the concrete wall he is building to divide Israel from a shrinking West Bank, and for his unwavering refusal to deal with Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian Authority president.
Yet his demise would throw the already tumultuous Palestinian political world into further chaos, Palestinians said Thursday, and create a vacuum that could spell trouble for Israel's neighbors just months after Sharon pulled Jewish settlers and troops from Gaza.
"Sharon's absence could turn things upside down," said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official. He worried that as Israeli political factions competed to fill the void, the Israeli military might escalate its offensive on areas of Gaza where Palestinian attacks on Israelis continue to originate.
"There is a lot of uncertainty about how and where the Israelis will go with the end of the Sharon era," Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Shaath told reporters.
Even among Palestinians, Sharon wins plaudits for his ability to take steps no other Israeli leader has taken, most notably the Gaza pullout. But the prime minister also received unprecedented backing from the White House, which Palestinians say gave him carte blanche to enforce policies they considered repressive and destructive to their interests.
"Sharon will be missed because he was able to make the hard decisions and carry them out," Said Zawawi, a 34-year-old teacher, said on the streets of Ramallah. "Sharon is not any different from all the Israeli leaders when it comes to the Palestinians, but at least when he makes a decision, he is strong enough to convince the Israeli people to support it."
Zawawi echoed numerous Palestinians in saying he held out little hope that circumstances would improve or even change much with Sharon gone.
"Frankly, I do not have much faith in all Israeli leaders," said Ramallah student Rashid Qawas, 17. "I do not think any of them wants peace, just like Sharon. All they want is to take our land and put us in a big prison.
"I do not think he could have been better for us if he continued in power," Qawas said. "On the contrary, he did not leave anything for us. Look at the wall and the checkpoints. Look what they are doing to us. We live in a big prison, and all this because of Sharon."
