- Title: VARIOUS: ISRAEL SEES GAZA BURIAL FOR PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT
- Date: 6th November 2004
- Summary: (U3) KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA (NOVEMBER 5, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF CEMETERY WHERE FATHER OF PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT WAS BURIED AND WHERE ISRAEL SAYS ARAFAT WILL PROBABLY BE BURIED AS WELL 0.04 2. MV CEMETERY; MV ARAFAT'S FATHER'S TOMB STONES; WIDE OF CEMETERY 0.26 (U3) GAZA CITY (NOVEMBER 5, 2004) (REUTERS) 3. CLOSE OF SIGN OUTSIDE CE
- Embargoed: 21st November 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA / GAZA CITY/ JERUSALEM/TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVAF2RENUI1624CV2GPVNCOGV9UE
- Story Text: Israel sees Gaza burial for Arafat, Palestinains say
too soon to discuss burial.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat would probably
be buried in the Gaza Strip if his illness proves fatal
because Israel refuses the Palestinian president a grave in
Jerusalem, an Israeli analyst said on Thursday (November 4).
Arafat was fighting for his life in a French hospital after
slipping into a coma.
His condition has stirred speculation not only at to
who might succeed him as Palestinian leader, but where he
could be buried, a key issue in a decades-old conflict
with Israel over claims to land.
Arafat has said he wants to be laid to rest in
Jerusalem's holy Old City, where he says he was born and
which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and
annexed in a move not recognised internationally.
Israel has ruled out Jerusalem, though some officials
have proposed a burial in the nearby Palestinian village of
Abu Dis, in the occupied West Bank.
"The problem is if he is buried in Jerusalem it's a
symbolic step so Israel will not let them bury Arafat in
Jerusalem because it might be interpreted as Israeli's
recognition that they (the Palestinians) have political
rights in Jerusalem" said Israeli analyst Danny Rubinstein.
But Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has his eye on coastal
Gaza, another territory captured in 1967, political sources
said.
Gaza could suit Sharon particularly well because he
aims to withdraw troops and Jewish settlers from the
territory by the end of next year under a plan for
"disengagement" from conflict with the Palestinians.
A senior Palestinian political source confirmed that
Gaza was Arafat's likeliest burial site if Jerusalem was
ruled out -- specifically a cemetery in Khan Younis where
the 75-year-old ex-guerrilla's father lies.
Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs said that it was
too early to discuss the matter.
"I still say he is very much alive and would like to
delay any discussion of death to much later," said Nabil
Shaath in Gaza.
Gaza was where Arafat first set foot as Palestinian
leader a decade ago after leaving exile under 1993 interim
peace accords. He later moved his headquarters to the West
Bank city of Ramallah, just outside Jerusalem.
Accused of fomenting violence in a Palestinian
uprising, Arafat had been effectively penned at the
compound by Israel for more than 2 1/2 years until he flew
to Paris for treatment last week.
Many biographers believe that Arafat was born in Cairo,
not Jerusalem. His father was from Gaza and his mother's
family from Jerusalem.
Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said on Friday
that Arafat would not be buried in Jerusalem.
"Jerusalem is a city where Jews bury their kings and
it's not a city where we want to bury an Arab terrorist,
mass murderer," he said.
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