The mayor of the Palestinian town of Jatt in Israel is caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, the last thing a Palestinian patriot and representative of a nationalist community wants is to take down a street sign bearing the name of Yasser Arafat. On the other hand, the local official has to respect the law and the order by the Israeli minister of interior that requires governmental approval prior to posting any street sign.
In a phone interview with Al-Monitor, Mayor Muhammad Taher Wattad said the street sign has been up since 2008 when the town of Jatt merged with the nearby town of Baqa al-Gharbiya. The twin towns were under the direction of a government-appointed committee headed by Yacov Valed, an Israeli Jew, Wattad said.
