RAMALLAH: A poisoning claim by the head of the ruling Fatah faction has strengthened a widely held belief among Palestinians that Yasser Arafat’s death eight months ago was due to foul play.Farouq Kaddoumi became the most senior Palestinian figure to endorse the poisoning theory when he told reporters in Tunis on Monday: “I can categorically confirm that Abu Ammar (Arafat) was poisoned.“The poison was administered in the food and in the medication he swallowed,” said the Tunis-based Kaddoumi, who was appointed Fatah chief after Arafat died but refuses to visit the occupied Palestinian territories.His comments are a variation of a theory put forward by Arafat’s former cabinet secretary, Ahmed Abdelrahman, who has said the Palestinian leader was poisoned more than a year before his death on November 11 at the Percy military hospital on the outskirts of Paris.
“The president was exposed to something (on September 25, 2003), and I’m inclined to believe it was maybe gas or something else,” Abdelrahman told a newspaper interviewer in December.Neither man has produced any medical evidence to back up his claim. One doctor who treated Arafat for many years dismissed Kaddoumi’s comments.
“He should not come out with comments such as this unless he has any concrete proof,” the doctor said on condition of anonymity.Arafat’s nephew, Nasser al-Qidwa, who has been handed a medical report into the death, has acknowledged that French doctors who carried out tests on his late uncle discovered no trace of any known poison.France’s strict medical secrecy laws mean the exact cause of death has never been made public, but Qidwa, who is Palestinian foreign minister, was entitled to receive a copy of his medical file as a close relative.The lack of evidence has not prevented many Palestinians from forming the view that the man who symbolised their quest for independence was killed by Israeli agents, having long been branded by Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon as “an absolute obstacle” to peace.
“I am almost sure that he was poisoned,” said schoolteacher Farid Abdelhalim.“It’s still not been clarified how he died, which makes me believe that Abu Ammar was poisoned, as we know he was a target of the Israelis for long,” Abdelhalim said near the Muqataa leadership compound where Arafat is buried.Taxi driver Osama Qassam was even more unequivocal.“I am positive that Arafat was poisoned. The Israelis couldn’t kill him directly so they had to get him this way,” he said.
“Once it was just a feeling, but as no one has come up with an explanation I feel that they are trying to hide something. This situation proves that Arafat was poisoned.” – AFP |
