"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning"

"On 26 January, in response to allegations received orally from Israeli officials regarding the alleged involvement of 12 UNRWA staff in the 7 October attack against Israel, and upon ascertaining that the individuals were indeed UNRWA staff members, the UNRWA Commissioner-General decided to immediately terminate the appointments of these staff “in the interest of the Agency,” in accordance with applicable staff regulations, in order to protect its ability to deliver humanitarian assistance. This decision was communicated through a statement."

UNRWA Website

 

"More than 100 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) are involved in terrorism, some holding simultaneous positions within Hamas and the Agency, Israel’s delegate told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today while representatives of States in the region and beyond expressed concern about that country’s systematic disinformation campaign against the Agency."

"It was an UNRWA social worker who kidnapped Jonathan Samerano from Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel’s delegate said, as she recalled how three years ago in the Fourth Committee, she had urged UNRWA to be accountable for the hateful indoctrination of children in its classrooms.  Her country had cautioned about “rockets and terror tunnels found underneath UNRWA schools in Gaza” and “textbooks calling Jews Satan’s helpers”.  However, its warnings went unheeded.  The 7 October events show a deep infiltration of the Agency, with employees taking part in the “abhorrent” acts of violence."

"Over the years, Israel has presented evidence that some UNRWA teachers were terrorists, some aid workers were murderers and certain classrooms were used as weapons storage sites, she said.  These neutrality breaches were never investigated.  Accusing UNRWA schools of “spreading anti-Semitic and jihadist ideologies” with “mathematical lessons centered on counting murders and suicide bombers”, she questioned UNRWA’s claims of school curriculum promoting gender equality, respect and tolerance.  Calling for accountability, she said her country “will not accept that aid flows through an organization complicit in terror”."

"Speakers in Fourth Committee Call Israel’s Charges of UNRWA’s Collusion Baseless Fallacies About an Agency Offering ‘Food on the Table’, ‘a Glimmer of Hope’"

United Nations, Meetings Coverage and Press Release, 14 November 2024

United Nations Website Photos

On November 22, 1974, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 3236, "Question of Palestine" recognizing the Palestine Liberation Oranization as the Palestinian representative, noting their "right" to a state. The resolution demanded that the 700,000 Palestinians who fled from Israel in 1948 when combined Arab militaries attacked the fledgling Jewish State, be allowed to return. No mention was made at that time, or any subsequent time, of the 800,000 Arabized Jews who were exiled from Arab countries where they had lived for millennia in the ancient diaspora.

The 'right of return' applies only to Palestinians, not to the Jews whose properties and goods were confiscated when they were forced to flee the Arab countries they called home until 1948. No UN agency was set up to offer them humanitarian aid and proclaim them refugees in perpetuity. They found their own solutions, some settling in Israel, others going to international destinations, finding refuge abroad. In the very same time-frame, when Pakistan broke off from India in a cataclysmic divide in 1947, amidst the deadly violence, a million refugees resulted.

There has never been a move by the United Nations to demand those million refugees be permitted to return to their homes in India and Pakistan. When Turkey sent its military to occupy Greek Cyprus there were no demands that the 200,000 refugees who fled the violent conflict, be returned to Cyprus. Resolution 3236 voting saw 89 countries in favour, eight against and 37 abstentions. It was that resolution that led to the UN granting observer status to the Palestine Liberation Organization, the original Palestinian terror group under Yasser Arafat. And when Arafat was invited to address the General Assembly, he wore a gun in a holster, as his version of a peace symbol.

Institute for Palestine Studies

It took a decade for the PLO to gain legitimacy at the United Nations; from the time it was created in 1964 to the passing of the Resolution ten years later. In the intervening years it became renowned for terrorist violence, hijacking aircraft and vessels at sea, holding hostages and killing Israelis in suicide bombings. The Soviet Union helped the PLO draft their charter, asserting that 'Palestine' is an Arab homeland, Israel's establishment was 'null and void', even though the Soviets were among those in 1947 at the UN voting for Partition and the establishment of the Jewish State. 

In the San Remo agreement of 1920 the Jewish people were to be given legal land title to what is now known as Israel, including Judea and Samaria (now called the West Bank) and Jordan, the total land mass identified as the British Mandate of Palestine. Despite which the British later cut TransJordan out, handing it instead to the Hashemites of Arabia, as a consolation prize when they gave the Wahhabist House of Saud, Arabia, to be transformed to Saudi Arabia. Yet no one, much less the United Nations questions the legitimacy of the State of Jordan, 60 percent of  whose population is Palestinian; ergo a Palestinian state.

Preserving Mass Delusion -- The Palestinian Narrative

A makeshift shrine dedicated to Yasser Arafat days before his death in 2004. Photograph: Kevin Freyer/AP

"There is not really enough space in any museum to adequately display Arafat's legacy."
"He brought unity, national pride, freedom and fight to the Palestinian people, and people really miss him."
"The Yasser Arafat Museum displays the Palestinian experience. It is the only venue in Palestine that presents the Palestinian narrative of events from the last century."
Mohammad Halayka, director, Yasser Arafat Museum

"We want to show the whole story of the Palestinian people, from the dawn of the 20th century until 2004. This story is of 100 years of conflict and dispossession, [but] also the role of Arafat, who is the main figure in this Palestinian journey."
We have kept it [Arafat's Ramallah bedroom] exactly as it was."
"I am totally convinced his death was not a natural death and most likely he was poisoned. Israel assassinated Yasser Arafat."
"The Arafat archive, which is probably the only coherent and comprehensive archive, was subject to several blows in Beirut and later in Gaza. The same goes for his belongings."
Nasser al-Kidwa, Arafat nephew, Fatah Central Committee member 

Photo AFP

He was visually unprepossessing, in fact a bit of a cartoon figure with his stubby facial hair, his thick lips and wide, blubbery face, his love of appearing in a guerrilla uniform, presenting himself as a righteous fighter for Palestinian justice. He was a nasty little man, a lover of violent solutions which solved nothing; a primal instigator of mass murder, inciting Palestinians to 'resist' the presence of a Jewish state; motivated by hate more than his idea of a nationalism that existed on a feeble platform of 'heritage' in Palestine.

But he remains a hugely respected figure for the Palestinians who appear to genuinely mourn his absence with their sincere adulation of the man who became their legend. He was indeed legendary for his violent exploits, masterminding and encouraging suicide attacks against Israel and Israelis, fomenting a new kind of guerrilla threat through the hijacking of airplanes and ships, holding passengers to ransom to focus the world's attention on himself and his aspirations as someone who outperformed Fidel Castro as guerrilla extraordinaire.

However, people feeling themselves under duress informed they must make sacrifices for their ideological movement of the destruction of Israel leading to repossession of land they claim for their own are zealous in their strident demands and threats, proud to make them holding the world to attention and forcing the nation under threat to become a military occupier to preserve their own existence in a wholesale hostile geography. And so, what could be more fitting than a tribute museum to their vaunted hero.

Symbolism is far more impressive than simple truth and reality which have a way of undercutting the dramatic flair for which he was famous. And so, a sub-machine gun is poised alongside a copy of the Koran on the desk in his office, preserved for posterity over a pile of papers. Nearby, in a guards' room leaning against the wall is an AK-47, signifying the Palestinian struggle that has no end. The revolver he was accustomed to wearing on his hip in a holster is displayed separately in a case. Recalling his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly, setting a bold new assertion of presence in that hallowed chamber; gun in one hand, 'olive branch' in the other.
 

Photo -- Reuters

The Yasser Arafat Museum's director, Mohammed Halayka explains that the artefacts, though numerous, yet lack completeness, since there are many other important documents and possessions of Yasser Arafat's that they have been unable to access. They are under Hamas control, remaining yet in the Gaza office that Arafat used, and closed to museum officials in reflection of the harmonious relations between Fatah and Hamas. Arafat's nephew adds that many other objects have been quite simply 'lost'. Among them their hero's original Nobel Peace Prize certificate; in its place is a reproduced copy obligingly supplied by the Nobel committee.


Within, among the displays there is also footage of significant events, including the "nakba", the catastrophe that struck Palestinian Arabs when Israel declared itself a state subsequent to the United Nations' declaration on Partition, a welcome invitation for Israel to proceed with its nascent state, a blow to Palestinian aspirations to rule the entire geography in perpetuity. When the 1948 war erupted with adjoining Arab nations assembling their militaries for a joint assault against the fledgling State of Israel, an estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled.

They were assured by the attacking nations that in short order they could return, once the Jews had been defeated and ousted from the geography. Life held many repeats of that failed joint attempt to destroy Israel, all adding to the festering hatred of the Palestinians in exile for the Jewish state and those who lived therein, despite that the Palestinian Arabs who had refused to leave, were now entitled to stay, as citizens of Israel. And the 800,000 Jews expelled from Arab lands were absorbed in their new country of universal Jewish haven.

 Yasser Arafat, though he was a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize had no real intention of formalizing and finalizing the Oslo Accord that would have resulted in a Palestinian state. Surrendering to the reality of a Jewish state and living alongside it with a Palestinian state was simply unacceptable to a conflict-ridden and -absorbed people demanding everything for themselves, and employing all means possible to inflict enough harm on Israelis to persuade them that departure from the land was the only means by which they could preserve their lives.

Palestinians inflicted themselves on Lebanon, and lived in 'refugee camps' throughout the Arab world, attacking Israel from those vantage points, including Jordan. Black September represented the Jordanian military clashing with Palestinians who were attacking Israel from their refugee camps. Fleeing Jordan, the militants settled in Lebanon. And when the Palestinian attacks out of Lebanon became too onerous for Israel to ignore, the Israeli military entered Lebanon to oust them from that vantage point.

The wall erected by Israel to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers did just that, while being condemned the world over as an apartheid wall. Yet now Lebanon, accustomed to terrorists in their midst as they are, with Hezbollah manipulating the government, is in the process of building a tall, wide concrete barrier to separate one of the more militant Palestinian refugee camps within its borders, to keep the terrorists within the camp away from Lebanese who never accepted the presence of Palestinians among them, holding them in contempt, denying them citizenship, just as all other Arab states with the exception of Jordan have done.

Rumours that Arafat and his cronies siphoned millions in aid funding from international sources that was always meant to support the Palestinian need of basic amenities and civil structures besmirched his reputation, but though the outside world and Israel in particular felt confident in that assertion, the Palestinians themselves coming to the same realization, all is forgiven in the adulation of a dead hero. In 2003, Forbes magazine listed the Arafat fortune at minimum at $300-million, while other estimates go as high as $1-billion.


As for his death a dozen years ago in France, the cause remains unsettled, although French doctors claim that Arafat died of a hemorrhagic stroke on November 11, 2004. His flu-like symptoms had continued to puzzle examining physicians. A military jet carried him to France once Egyptian and Jordanian doctors had failed to diagnose his failing health condition. Arafat's wife continues to insist that he died of poisoning, from something like Polonium, accusing Israel of having poisoned her husband, a stance that the Museum gives credit to for his death. Rumours are that his death was attributable to a claque within Fatah.



However, that doesn't represent the only inconsistencies with the truth about the man. The museum claims him to have been born in Jerusalem's Old City. One of the displays at the museum is a replica of a dwelling overlooking the Al Aqsa Mosque, identifying it as the home of Arafat's grandfather, and precisely where they claim the Palestinian hero had been born. Even while most historians say unequivocally that the man was born in Egypt, and only arrived in Jerusalem after his mother died, when he was four years of age.

"This is the house where he was born The stones are real. We brought them from the Old City, even though the house no longer exists", authoritatively insisted museum guide Dana Abdein. The Palestinian "cause" began before the creation of Israel in 1948, and Arafat was involved in it s a teenager; it became his destiny, to lead the Palestinians into the land occupied by Israel, as a conquest for Arabs and Islam. In this he failed, while managing to retain the adulation of those whose lives he made poorer through his campaign of hatred and violence.

Naturally Dead

Death -- of natural causes. His time had come. And some might add; none too soon. He had outlived his opportunities to make a meaningful difference to the people he claimed to have represented, in any event. Whenever the chance came, with great fanfare, to sign onto peace and relinquish his love affair with victimhood and vengeance, he chose, in the end, to reject that and clung instead to the refugee status that became so beloved of Palestinians.

Refugee status earned them something unique, something no other group of refugees in the world had ever achieved. The world, through the United Nations, felt obligated to respect their wish to be refugees forever. Other Arab nations were complacent with their decision not to embrace their fellow Arabs, inviting them to settle in parts of the Middle East where they might have made a new life for themselves. Their 'cause' was to be celebrated and pursued, but their absorption to be avoided.

But it wasn't a new life they wanted, they yearned for the old life they had left behind. Most leaving with the assurances given them by the very Arab states that now withheld citizenship from them, that they could leave briefly, allowing the combined armies of Israel's Arab enemies to wipe out the nascent state, returning the land sacred to Islam to those who worshipped the Prophet and treasured their Muslim status.

On the very cusp of a peace that earned Yasser Arafat one-third of a Nobel Peace Prize, he chose instead to instigate a return to violence and the Intifada was his designated choice to show the world that Palestinian anguish could not be bought off so easily as to surrender their animus to the intruders they claimed Jews to be, foreigners in a country never their own.

When Suha Arafat, living off the rich fat of draining off funding meant to support Palestinians by her corrupt husband and his corrupt colleagues, reinvested herself in the ongoing search for the "truth" of her husband's death, she no doubt was pleased no end that the French, the Swiss and the Russians were tasked with conducting scientific searches for the answer that would implicate demonic Israel in her husband's death.

The Swiss were obliging enough; the French less so, and the Russians, whose support for the Palestinian cause could not be questioned, announced their finding: "It was a natural death; there was no impact of radiation", according to Vladimir Uiba, head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency. Yasser Arafat died of natural causes; no further investigation required.

The French probe found that traces of radioactive isotope polonium was present but their expert opinion was that it was "of natural environmental origin". As for the Swiss; the time frame of his illness and death, as far as they were concerned, appeared consistent with the causative of polonium poisoning.

So take your pick, one in the affirmative, two in the negative. Life killed Yasser Arafat.

Russian Experts Confirm: Arafat Died of Natural Causes

by Ari Soffer -- ArutzSheva 7 -- 26 December 2013

A team of Russian forensic experts have said that former Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Yasser Arafat died of "natural causes", and ruled out radiation poisoning as a cause of death, according to Lebanon's Daily Star.

"We have completed all the studies. The person died a natural death and not from radiation," announced the head of Russia's Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA) Vladimir Uiba, according to Russia state media.

The announcement echoes previous findings by a group of French experts, who also ruled out foul play as contributing towards Arafat's death.

Both findings contradict a report by a team of Swiss scientists, who claimed that it was likely Arafat was killed by polonium poisoning, though they clarified that the test results neither confirmed nor denied polonium was the actual cause of his death.

Those findings have been viewed with skepticism in some parts however, due to revelations that Arafat's former wife was funding the investigation, along with the Palestinian Authority itself. Other experts have poured doubt on the findings themselves, saying that if polonium had been used to kill Arafat it would have decomposed long ago.

Arafat's ex-wife Suha Arafat had refused to accept the French findings, and a recent poll suggested widespread support for conspiracy theories surrounding the former PA leader's death among Palestinian Arabs, and blame Israel for his death.

Yasser Arafat died in France on November 11, 2004 at the age of 75, but doctors were unable to conclusively determine the cause of death. At the time, his widow Suha Arafat refused to allow an autopsy.

Suha Arafat later allowed investigators to exhume his body after traces of polonium-210 were found on clothing that she provided to scientists as part of an Al Jazeera documentary.

Tags: Yasser Arafat, Suha Arafat, Arafat probe, Arafat poisoning

More on this topic

• Poll: Most Palestinians believe Israel Poisoned Arafat
• Al-Jazeera Fires Reporter for Questioning Arafat 'Assassination'
• Arafat's Widow to Challenge French Inquiry Into His Death
• Swiss Expert Dismisses French Report on Arafat's Death
• Arafat Widow 'Still Convinced' Her Husband was Poisoned
• French Experts Say Arafat Died of 'Natural Causes'

Arafat 'not poisoned' - leaked French report

BBC News online -- 3 December 2013

Mr Arafat died weeks after leaving his compound in Ramallah to seek treatment

A team of French scientists probing the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 do not believe he was poisoned, according to leaks to French media.

They have reportedly concluded he died after a "generalised infection".

A previous report by Swiss scientists said tests on his body showed "unexpected high activity" of polonium.

This "moderately" supported the theory, long believed by many Palestinians, that he was poisoned, the report said.

Arafat, who led the Palestine Liberation Organisation for 35 years and became the first president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, fell violently ill in October 2004 at his compound.

Two weeks later he was flown to a French military hospital in Paris, where he died on 11 November 2004, aged 75.

Mr Arafat's official medical records say he died from a stroke resulting from a blood disorder. French doctors were not able at the time to determine what had caused the disorder.

His body was exhumed for testing last year amid continuing claims he was murdered. Many Palestinians have accused Israel of being behind his death, something which Israel has always denied.
The latest reported findings were "not a surprise", Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP.

Mr Arafat remains an icon for many Palestinians

In July 2012, an al-Jazeera documentary reported that scientists at the Swiss Institute of Radiation Physics had found "significant" traces of a highly radioactive and toxic material on personal effects given to Mr Arafat's widow Suha after his death, including his trademark keffiyeh.

Mrs Arafat asked the Palestinian Authority to authorise the exhumation of his remains in order "to reveal the truth".

The Palestinian Authority granted French investigators and a team of Swiss scientists permission to exhume Arafat's body and take samples for testing. Russia also sent experts, and samples were sent to its Federal Medico-Biological Agency.

Swiss scientists' findings

• Experts at the Vaudois University Hospital Centre (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland, conducted tests on samples taken from Yasser Arafat's exhumed body in November 2012
• The Swiss report said there were "unexpectedly high levels of polonium-210 and lead-210 activity" found in specimens taken from Arafat's ribs, pelvis and soil that absorbed his bodily fluids
• It noted a lack of adequate biological specimens, particularly soft tissues, and the eight years between death and the investigation, rendering detection subject to uncertainties
• But it concluded results "moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210"

Mrs Arafat also filed a civil suit at a court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, alleging that her husband was murdered by an unnamed "perpetrator X". French prosecutors began a murder inquiry in August 2012.

Last month, a forensic expert said that the levels of polonium found in Mr Arafat's remains by the Swiss scientists were 18 to 36 times higher than normal.

However, they said their findings could not categorically prove the theory that he was poisoned.
The Swiss scientists had stressed that they had been unable to reach a more definitive conclusion because of the time that had lapsed since Arafat's death, the limited samples available and the confused "chain of custody" of some of the specimens.

Also on Tuesday, a Palestinian investigator said he would soon name the people he believed were responsible for Mr Arafat's death.

"I promise that the next press conference will be the last and will cast into the light of day everyone who perpetrated, took part in or conspired in the matter," Tawfiq Tirawi told Palestine Today television, Reuters reports.

Arafat's Death and Palestinian Incitement Against Israel

by Khaled Abu Toameh
November 11, 2013 at 5:00 am

Palestinians renewed their allegations that Israel was responsible for the "assassination" of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat. But a thorough reading of the Swiss scientists' report shows that their findings are inconclusive. Russian scientists who also examined the remains have said there was insufficient evidence to support the claim that Arafat may have died in 2004 by polonium poisoning.
Many Palestinians are saying that Israel could not have "killed" Arafat without help from the people who were very close to him. According to this theory, the same Palestinian officials who have been pointing a finger at Israel may themselves have been involved in the death of Arafat. "I am sure it is someone in his close circle, " Arafat's widow, Suha, Arafat told Reuters last week. "It must have been someone close to him."

While U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was busy in the Middle East last week trying to prevent the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Palestinians renewed their allegation that Israel was responsible for the "assassination" of the Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat.

The nine-year-old Palestinian allegation -- that Israel had poisoned Arafat -- was this time based on the findings of Swiss scientists who conducted tests on his remains and soil taken from his grave.
But a thorough reading of the Swiss scientists' report shows that their findings are inconclusive. Still, the Palestinian Authority [PA] is not willing to let the facts stand in its way.

The scientists wrote that "taking into account the analytical limitations, mostly time lapse since the death and the nature and quality of the specimens, the results moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-201."

However, Russian scientists who also examined Arafat's remains have said that there was insufficient evidence to support the the claim that Arafat may have died in 2004 by polonium poisoning.

The Swiss and Russian scientists did not conduct a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding Arafat's death. All that they did last November was take samples from Arafat's body in a bid to determine the cause of death.

But for the PA leadership, the inconclusive findings of the Swiss scientists was sufficient enough to once again hold Israel responsible for the "assassination of martyr Yasser Arafat."

Since the 108-page Swiss report was published by the Al-Jazeera news channel last week, PA officials have been waging a campaign of incitement against Israel.

The PA's campaign has created the false impression among Palestinians that the Swiss scientists were the ones who pointed a finger at Israel. The PA has also created the false impression that the findings of the scientists were conclusive and uncontroversial.

A Palestinian Authority honor guard at attention over Yasser Arafat's tombstone in Ramallah, 2008. (Image source: Tristam Sparks)

The Palestinian allegations against Israel took place while U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas and top Palestinian officials in Bethlehem on Wednesday, to discuss ways of moving forward with the U.S.-sponsored peace talks with Israel. The charges escalated even as Kerry and Abbas met for the second time in Jordan the following day.

On Friday, shortly after Kerry left the region, Palestinian officials took the case a step further by calling a press conference in Ramallah where they declared that Israel was the "only accused" in the mysterious death of Arafat.

"Israel is the first, only and major accused in the assassination of President Yasser Arafat," Tawfik Tirawi, head of a Palestinian committee entrusted with investigating Arafat's death, announced at the start of the press conference.

The Palestinian charges against Israel regarding the death of Arafat are not new. These charges, which have never been verified, surfaced almost on the first day when Arafat fell ill in his presidential compound in Ramallah.

Palestinian officials have since used annual rallies to commemorate the anniversary of Arafat's death to repeat charges that Israel had poisoned their leader.

These allegations should be seen in the context of the Palestinian Authority's ongoing efforts to delegitimize Israel and pave the way for filing "war crimes" charges against Israelis in various international forums, especially the International Criminal Court [ICC].

In the past few days, a number of Palestinian officials said in wake of the findings of the Swiss report that it was time to take Israel to the ICC for its ostensible role in the death of Arafat.

This is the same Palestinian Authority that has been telling its people that Jews release wild pigs in the West Bank to destroy agricultural fields and rats in the Old City of Jerusalem to drive Arab residents out of their homes.

More recently, Palestinian media outlets also reported that the IDF had been seen releasing snakes in certain areas of Bethlehem to intimidate Palestinians and drive them out of their homes. They also reported that Jews have been poisoning Palestinian water wells in Hebron.

So while Abbas was reaffirming his commitment to peace during the recent meetings with Kerry, PA officials and media outlets were telling their people that the Israelis must be punished for "poisoning" Arafat and perpetrating various "crimes" against Palestinians.

This is the kind of talk that drives young Palestinians to take to the streets with the intention of killing the first Jew they meet. The renewed incitement may be responsible for last week's two separate attacks on IDF soldiers in the West Bank. In both cases, the two Palestinian attackers were shot and killed by IDF soldiers.

The anti-Israel incitement causes huge damage to Kerry's continued efforts to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The incitement radicalizes Palestinians to a point where many are starting to talk about the need for revenge, and not peace.

The Palestinian Authority is also shooting itself in the foot by repeatedly accusing Israel of being behind the "assassination" of Arafat. Many Palestinians are saying that Israel could not have "killed" Arafat without help from the people who were very close to him.

According to this theory, the same Palestinian officials who have been pointing a finger at Israel may themselves have been involved in the death of Arafat. So the charges against Israel are coming back to haunt Abbas and several senior Palestinian officials.

"I'm sure it's someone in his close circle," Arafat's widow, Suha, told Reuters last week. "The expert said that the poison was put in his tea, or coffee or water. It must have been someone close to him."

Related Topics:  Khaled Abu Toameh 

Inconvenient Initiatives

"The Palestinians are using Israel as a scapegoat. If Arafat was murdered, then he (the killer) should be sought among the heads of the Palestinian Authority."
Raanan Gissin, former aide to Israel's former President Ariel Sharon

"I say, with all the details available about Yasser Arafat's death, that he was killed, and that Israel killed him."
Tawfik Tirawi, Palestinian investigative team

Swiss and Russian reports agree Chairman Yasser Arafat's death "was not caused by old age or disease, but as a result of a toxic substance", according to Dr. Abdullah Bashir, a medical expert, part of the three-man Palestinian team investigating the former Palestinian leader's death. Confirming, he insists, that he was poisoned, a line long held by the Palestinians.

No serious investigators with any kind of scientific/medical authority, however, are prepared to testify that Yasser Arafat's 2004 death in a Paris hospital resulted from the malign intention of a deliberately delivered death potion of polonium. Nothing has been produced despite four investigations and hundreds of stacks of medical reports, to present a hard-and-fast argument of hard evidence.

The Russian report received by Palestinian officials was inconclusive regarding evidence of any role radioactive polonium may have played in his death. Russia knows a great deal about the use of deadly polonium causing the death of people inconvenient to the Kremlin; they speak with authority. The Swiss scientists, on the other hand, feel the Palestinian leader was likely poisoned by the lethal substance.

When Ariel Sharon, as Prime Minister of his country decided to visit a religious heritage site sacred to Judaism, Yasser Arafat immediately accused him of insulting Islam, profaning an Islamic site that was built over the Judaic site, by his presence. The resulting demonstrations morphed into a second Intifada, a time of rage and violence that capped the refusal of Arafat to ratify a peace accord that offered the Palestinians all they had demanded.

Israel had been helping the Palestinian Authority to launch the infrastructure of a responsible civil structure in preparation for embarking upon its sovereign nationhood in due time. Along with steering the Palestinians in civil infrastructure, there was an agreement to arm and train Palestinian security forces to work alongside the IDF for the purpose of tamping down terrorism and ensuring security prevailed.

In the second Intifada, those Palestinian security forces used the skills they had learned from the IDF and the weapons they had been given, to attack the very source of their knowledge and arms. This situation did not endear its maker to the state that had attempted to guide it to civility and cooperation. Resulting in Yasser Arafat being secluded in his Ramallah bunker, closely monitored by the IDF.

Within that bunker he was restless, but secure, surrounded by trusted colleagues and underlings, along with security forces dedicated to his well-being. Who would be able to reach him other than those he trusted? And although his wife insisted that Israel was responsible for his death, she rejected the practicality of a revealing autopsy, insisting he be buried immediately on death.

Since the evidence of the presence of polonium is known to have a short lifespan, though it is a common element in the food we eat, the air we breathe, the soil that surrounds us, what purpose could there be in exhuming the body and setting up an investigation at this stage? Raanan Gissin in recommending that the search for the alleged killer among the heads of the Palestinian Authority is not removed from reality.

It was well known that the more aggressive branches of the PLO suspected Arafat, opposed him and he feared their potential for a deadly attack on his august person. There might even have been some who were so disgusted by the wealth he and his cronies had amassed through milking the substantial funds transferred from the international community to further the well-being of the Palestinians that they felt he deserved death.

In which case, it might be a good idea for the current president of the PA to exercise due diligence in protecting himself from any possible personal violence directed toward him. The former Palestinian intelligence chief, Tawfik Tirawi has floated the idea of a possible international tribunal to investigate Arafat's death. As a symbol of Palestinian intransigence and Israeli betrayal, it would create terrific buzz.

Mahmoud Abbas has so far withheld his counsel. An energized new probe, while inviting closer scrutiny of Israel and its conceivable motivations might also have the unfortunate effect of too closely scrutinizing Arafat's Palestinian aides and bodyguards. Too close to home for comfort.

Smoking Gun

"This has confirmed all our doubts. It is scientifically proved that he didn't die a natural death and we have scientific proof that this man was killed."
Suha Arafat

Suha and her daughter (Photo: AFP)

"Yasser Arafat died of polonium poisoning. We found the smoking gun that caused his death. What we don't know is who was holding the gun at the time. The main problem is the time frame. If this was a murder that happened yesterday, you would have witnesses and cellphone records, emails, bank transfers. In a nine-year-old case that type of information will be hard to obtain."
David Barclay, British forensic scientist

"We want to know who poisoned him and how they did it and all the details of this crime. We want to know who implemented it and planned it. We want to try all those who were involved in it. Arafat was no ordinary president. He was a big symbol for the Palestinian people."
Ghassan Shaka'a, mayor Nablus, PLO executive committee member

And heaven knows, Palestinians are big on symbols. Their premier symbol whom they now mourn as an icon of Palestinian-Arab resistance to the occupation by former Palestinian-Jews-now-Israelis, earned his stripes as a murderer gifted in inciting the thugs that surrounded him to highjacking airplanes, bombing synagogues, abducting and killing Jews, and generally waging terror where it would be least expected; say, for example at the Olympics in Munich.

His physical presence was anything but imposing, but he did most certainly impose his agenda, his will, his authority and his malevolence as a leader of an aggrieved people delighting in their world-recognition as 'refugees', representing the only such group in perpetuity, thanks to especially ordained United Nations nursing and extraordinary welfare conditioning. His adoration within the UN another item of credit, where he dramatically released a dove while in that august assembly he carried a firearm.

The result of a peace conference brokered by the United States administration, where as a representative of the Palestinians he was offered all that was demanded to agree to a cessation of hostilities against the State of Israel, was a final rejection of east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza and a limited right-of-return provision. Knowing his life to be endangered should he sign any agreement regardless of advantage, he chose an Intifada.

Which resulted in his isolation at his Ramallah headquarters, in a bunker, where he sheltered himself from any potential of reprisals either from his Palestinian enemies of whom there were ample, or from the IDF; hard to say which he feared most; in all likelihood the former. And in all likelihood it was the former who managed to end his life. Israel had helped him to form all the outlines of a civil community, had trained its police, only to have them turn the arms back on them.

The bunker was closely guarded and impermeable to entry by anyone unauthorized to do so. Clearly, if Mr. Arafat was fed a poisonous substance like polonium-210, not very much would have been required, and the opportunity to administer it would have been afforded by those closest around him. Scientists from the University Centre of Legal Medicine in Lausanne, Switzerland now assert with 83% confidence that the man was poisoned with polonium.

Their finding, they announced, "moderately supports" that it was this deadly poison that caused his death. There were suspicions at the time of his death, despite the official French medical report that he had died of a massive stroke with a blood condition known as disseminated intravascular coagulation, without knowing what led to the DIC; possibly infections and liver disease. Which is where the rumour of AIDS conceivably came into the picture.

At the time of his death his widow steadfastly refused an autopsy. She, among so many others, expressed the opinion that her husband had been given a noxiously deadly substance that caused his death, yet she refused an autopsy. Just as his life had benefited her by celebrity, worship and a style of living she swiftly became enamoured with, his death bestowed upon her the vast fortune that the man had amassed through his corrupt practise of sieving off international funding meant for Palestinians.

She denied ever having taken money illegitimately, that the wealth she was left with was quite legitimate, without evidently having to explain how a man of no means could ever have amassed a fortune other than by claiming for himself the generosity of the international community wishing to aid the Palestinian 'refugees' living in the inadequacy of United Nations' supplied housing, food, medicine, education, but not self-respect.

Arafat polonium findings confirmed by Swiss scientists

BBC News online -- 7 November 2013

The BBC's Yolande Knell: "People here in Ramallah have shown no surprise at these new findings"

Swiss scientists have confirmed that tests show the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat had high levels of radioactive polonium in his body.

However, they could not say whether polonium poisoning had caused his death in 2004.
Their report concluded that Arafat's remains showed levels of polonium 18 times higher than normal.
Arafat's widow, Suha, has reaffirmed to the BBC her belief that their report proves he was assassinated.

But she said she could not directly accuse anyone, saying that he had many enemies around the world.

Analysis

Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC World Service

The Swiss scientists were extremely cautious about their findings.
Testing for polonium 210 so many years after Yasser Arafat's death is fraught with difficulties.
It is a very unstable element, with a half-life of 138 days.
That means after four months, the amount of polonium in a sample would have halved; after a year there would be just one eighth of the original amount; and after the eight years since Mr Arafat died, there would be a vanishingly small fraction remaining.
This adds huge levels of uncertainty to any findings - as does the fact that polonium is also found naturally in the soil and air.

Many Palestinians have long believed that Israel poisoned Arafat. There have also been allegations that he had Aids or cancer. Israel has consistently denied any involvement.

The scientists - from the Vaudois University Hospital Centre (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland - had carried out a detailed examination of Arafat's medical records, samples taken from his remains and items he had taken into the hospital in Paris where he died in 2004.

The biological materials included pieces of Mr Arafat's bones and soil samples from around his corpse.

Professor Francois Bochud told a news conference on Thursday that the high level of polonium detected "by definition... indicates third party involvement... Our results offer moderate backing for the theory of poisoning."

But he went on to say: "Was polonium the cause of the death for certain? The answer is no, we cannot show categorically that hypothesis that the poisoning caused was this or that."

Swiss scientists' findings

• Experts at the Vaudois University Hospital Centre (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland, conducted tests on samples taken from Yasser Arafat's exhumed body in November 2012
• Samples also analysed by Palestinian, French and Russian teams, whose findings have yet to be published by the Palestinian Authority
• Swiss report says "unexpectedly high levels of polonium-210 and lead-210 activity" found in specimens taken from Arafat's ribs, pelvis and soil that absorbed his bodily fluids
• It notes a lack of adequate biological specimens, particularly soft tissues, and the eight years between death and the investigation, rendering detection subject to uncertainties
• But it concludes results "moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210"

In their report, the scientists had stressed that they had been unable to reach a more definitive conclusion because of the time that had lapsed since Arafat's death, the limited samples available and the confused "chain of custody" of some of the specimens.

Polonium-210 is a highly radioactive substance. It is found naturally in low doses in food and in the body, but can be fatal if ingested in high doses.

Arafat, who led the Palestine Liberation Organisation for 35 years and became the first president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, fell violently ill in October 2004 at his compound in the West Bank.

Two weeks later he was flown to a French military hospital in Paris, where he died on 11 November 2004, aged 75.

His official medical records say he died from a stroke resulting from a blood disorder.
France began a murder inquiry in August 2012 after the preliminary findings of polonium by the Lausanne scientists, who have been working with an al-Jazeera documentary crew.

Polonium-210

• Highly radioactive and toxic element
• Present in foods in low doses
• Low levels found naturally in the environment
• Can be manufactured by bombarding certain isotopes with neutrons
• Has industrial uses such as in anti-static devices
• Very dangerous if significant dose ingested
• External exposure not a risk, only if ingested
• Present in tobacco

Parallel investigations are being carried out by French and Russian experts - one Russian official said last month that no traces of polonium had been found.

Suha Arafat, who had objected to a post-mortem at the time of his death, agreed for his body to be exhumed a year ago "to reveal the truth".

Welcoming the Swiss report, Mrs Arafat said she had no doubt that her husband had been assassinated but refused to point the finger at Israel.

"I can't accuse anybody. Everybody wants to accuse Israel - I can't accuse - I can't jump into conclusion," she told the BBC.

"Now the case is in the French jurisdiction, I wanted to document this crime - this crime I want it documented for history, actually."

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