MIDDLE EAST: Palestinians and the Israelis react to the news that the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has been poisoned

Record ID: 373909

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Palestinians and the Israelis react to the news that the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has been poisoned
  • Date: 7th November 2013
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) DAVID MEIR EPSNI, ISRAELI RESIDENT FROM JERUSALEM, SAYING: "I suppose it is possible, I mean Israel could have killed him by just dropping a bomb on his house. There certainly are many people who have good justifications to have wanted him killed but I think it is probably equally as possible and probably more likely that someone within the Palestinian Authority said it is time for someone to move on and he was not going to move on." PEOPLE AT CAFE MAN READING NEWSPAPER (SOUNDBITE) (English) YONA TSUR, ISRAELI RESIDENT, SAYING: "In Israel we love conspiracies so I think it is not surprise to anyone, the question is who? Every body have had some interest to remove Arafat so we have to wait and see who it was." VEHICLES IN STREET RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (NOVEMBER 7, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF POSTER OF LATE PALESTINIAN LEADER YASSER ARAFAT VARIOUS OF ARAFAT MEMORIAL PEOPLE NEAR ARAFAT'S TOMB PALESTINIAN FLAGS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ALI JAMAL, PALESTINIAN FROM RAMALLAH, SAYING: "President Abu Amar (Yasser Arafat) is the symbol of the Palestinian nation, the symbol of the Palestinian issue. The case should be investigated and we ask for his blood (justice)! It is proven now that the Jews and Israel poisoned and killed him." SECURITY BY ARAFAT'S TOMB GRAVE STONE READING IN ARABIC 'HERE LAYS THE BODY OF LATE LEADER YASSER ARAFAT' GAZA CITY, GAZA (NOVEMBER 7, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF POSTER OF ARAFAT GAZA STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) WISSAM MAHDI, GAZA RESIDENT, SAYING: "We have no doubt that some of the differences in the last days between the President Mahmoud Abbas, Mohamad Dahlan (and Arafat) were to blame. Some say Mohamed Dahlan was behind the poisoning, others say Mahmoud Abbas. This matter is still obscure. In the end we blame the (Israeli) occupation authorities who imposed siege on him. And, for sure, the occupation has agents everywhere and, for sure, they sent, via a collaborator, the poison that was placed in his food." PEOPLE AND VEHICLES AT GAZA STREET VARIOUS OF GRAFFITI FOR ARAFAT AND FORMER HAMAS LEADER AHMAD YASSIN
  • Embargoed: 22nd November 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, Gaza, West bank
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA27A3RL6VXBKRICG1G3X3SUWUR
  • Story Text: Israel said on Thursday (November 7) it did not poison Yasser Arafat, making the denial after the Palestinian leader's widow said Swiss forensic tests had proven he died from radioactive polonium poisoning in 2004.
    Israeli energy minister Silvan Shalom, who in 2004 served as foreign minister and as a member of Israel's security cabinet told Israel Radio that Israel never had plans to harm Arafat physically.
    Arafat's widow Suha said on Wednesday (November 6) her late husband has been poisoned to death with radioactive polonium, after receiving the results of Swiss forensic tests on her husband's corpse.
    She did not accuse any country or person, and acknowledged that the historic leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization had many enemies, although she noted that Israel had branded him an obstacle to peace.

    "I suppose it is possible, I mean Israel could have killed him by just dropping a bomb on his house. There certainly are many people who have good justifications to have wanted him killed but I think it is probably equally as possible and probably more likely that someone within the Palestinian Authority said it is time for someone to move on and he was not going to move on," said Israeli resident of Jerusalem David Meir Epsni.
    Israeli newspapers on Thursday were full of speculations of who could have been behind Arafat's death.

    "In Israel we love conspiracies so I think it is not surprise to anyone, the question is who? Every body have had some interest to remove Arafat so we have to wait and see who it was," said Yona Tsur in Jerusalem.
    A team of experts, including from Lausanne University Hospital's Institute of Radiation Physics, opened Arafat's grave in the West Bank city of Ramallah last November, and took samples from his body to seek evidence of alleged poisoning.
    Chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat made an appeal for an international tribunal over Arafat's death last year, when the Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera first disclosed the presence of the polonium on the late president's clothing.

    "President Abu Amar (Yasser Arafat) is the symbol of the Palestinian nation, the symbol of the Palestinian issue. The case should be investigated and we ask for his blood (justice)!" said Ali Jamal in West Bank's Ramallah where the late leader was buried.
    He blamed the Israelis for Arafat's death: "It is proven now that the Jews and Israel poisoned and killed him."
    Arafat's widow told Reuters on Wednesday that the polonium must have been administered by someone "in his close circle" because experts had told her the poison would have been put in his coffee, tea or water.
    Allegations of foul play surfaced immediately after his death in a French military hospital in 2004. Arafat had foes among his own people, but many Palestinians pointed the finger at Israel, which besieged him in his Ramallah headquarters for the final two and a half years of his life.

    "We have no doubt that some of the differences in the last days between the President Mahmoud Abbas, Mohamad Dahlan (and Arafat) were to blame. Some say Mohamed Dahlan was behind the poisoning, others say Mahmoud Abbas.This matter is still obscure," said Wissam Mahdi, 21, a journalism student from Gaza referring to the Palestinian political leadership at the time of Arafat's death.

    "In the end we blame the (Israeli) occupation authorities who imposed siege on him. And, for sure, the occupation has agents everywhere and, for sure, they sent, via a collaborator, the poison that was placed in his food," Wissam added.
    Arafat fell ill in October 2004, displaying symptoms of acute gastroenteritis with diarrhoea and vomiting. At first Palestinian officials said he was suffering from influenza.
    He was flown to Paris in a French government plane but fell into a coma shortly after his arrival at the Percy military hospital in the suburb of Clamart, where he died on Nov. 11.
    The official cause of death was a massive stroke but French doctors said at the time they were unable to determine the origin of his illness. No autopsy was carried out.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register