IMRA Newsletter
Ahmad Abdul Rahman: Arafat was poisoned on September 25, 2003
Palestinians Remember Founder of Palestinian Nationalism
21/12/2004
Palestine Media Center - PMC [Official arm of the PA]
www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=758
As Palestinians were set on Tuesday to pay tribute to the founder of Palestinian nationalism Yaser Arafat at the end of an official 40-day mourning period, the late leader's cabinet secretary Ahmad Abdul Rahman told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper Monday that Arafat was poisoned on September 25, 2003 when he received a delegation of supposed supporters in his Ramallah compound.
"Something strange happened to Arafat around a year ago. It was on September 25, 2003...," Ahmad Abdul Rahman told Al-Hayat.
"The president shook hands with around 30 people before leaving to vomit. It was from that moment that the president's health started slowly deteriorating," he explained Monday.
"Arafat shook hands with people, who had come to express solidarity with him in his confinement. They were a mixture of Palestinians, foreigners and Israelis," Abdul Rahman recalled.
On September 25, Arafat received a visit from a group of cyclists from around the world on a peace mission as well as from a group of activists accompanying the parents of a US peace activist who had died six months earlier crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer in the southern Gaza Strip.
"'Could it be that they got to me?', Arafat asked himself, Abdul Rahman recalled. He also said: "Is it possible that 10 doctors can't find out what I'm suffering from?"
"The president was exposed to something, and I'm inclined to believe it was maybe gas or something else. I don't know about all the types of poisons, but there are some 700 that are unknown," Abdul Rahman said.
"The last time he became ill, on October 12, 2004, he had the same symptoms: vomiting, refusal to eat and all the symptoms of flu without a flu," Abdul Rahman told Al-Hayat.
The cabinet secretary, who recorded the evolution of Arafat's health in his diary, said red rashes appeared on his skin, the same ones which were visible on his face before he was evacuated to France for treatment this year.
Two weeks before the visit mentioned by Abdul Rahman, the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet had taken a decision to "remove" Arafat from his Ramallah compound.
Wide-spread Belief
A wide specter of Palestinian officials and public do believe that Arafat was poisoned. Since Arafat died in a French hospital of a mystery illness on November 11, several leading Palestinian officials have suggested the veteran leader had been poisoned.
Faruq Al-Qaddumi, who succeeded Arafat as head of the ruling Fatah movement, had reaffirmed his belief that the Palestinian leader had been poisoned.
"He died due to poison. All the treatments and medical examinations have ruled out all the illnesses that you could think of, like leukaemia or the loss of immunity," he said.
"Why had all the blood platelets continued to disintegrate? There is no other reason," he had told reporters at a news conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud.
Arafat's nephew and PLO UN envoy Nasser Al-Kidwa said Arafat's French medical records were "inconclusive" and declared that poisoning could not be excluded.
Asked if he could assure Palestinians Arafat was not killed by poison, al-Kidwa said: "No I cannot assure you. This possibility could not be excluded."
"We don't have proof that suggests there was poisoning. We don't have proof that there wasn't, in a definitive way," al-Kidwa elaborated.
Arafat's long-life doctor Ashraf Al-Kurdi doubted the French medical report, noting it did not include the full diagnosis of Arafat's ailment nor did it refer to the most controversial issue of poisoning as the cause of death.
"French doctors should have conducted an autopsy to determine whether poisoning" was or was not the cause of Arafat's death, Al-Kurdi said.
Arafat's top security adviser Jibril Al-Rjoub told Al-Quds that the French medical report was to be presented to specialists to determine cause of the late Palestinian leader's death.
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) imposed a siege on Arafat in his Ramallah headquarters in the West Bank since December 2001 until he was flied to France for treatment on October 29.
The Palestine National Authority (PNA) promised to disclose the cause of Arafat's death and formed an inquiry committee that includes doctors who treated him before he was flown to a Paris.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurie ordered an inquiry to determine the cause of Arafat's death. A commission headed by the Palestinian Minister of Health will take testimony from Palestinian and other Arab doctors in an effort to remove questions surrounding Arafat's death in a French military hospital last month.
Abbas Loyal to Arafat's Legacy, Israel Concerned
Arafat's successor as the chairman of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen) has repeatedly pledged to honor his predecessor's legacy.
"The true loyalty to Arafat's memory would be to pursue his path to achieve Palestinian national goals, namely the establishment of a democratic state, with Jerusalem as its capital, that would live in peace and security next to Israel," Abbas said.
In an interview with the Jerusalem Post newspaper, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Israel was concerned by the support Abbas had expressed for Arafat positions.
"We are discouraged," Shalom was quoted as saying. "Abu Mazen's first declaration ... was that he will preserve Arafat's legacy. For us that legacy is terrorism."