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Subscribe to RSSLabs in France, Russia and Switzerland will conduct independent tests of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's bone samples, searching for evidence that he could have been poisoned. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — For a fateful scene in a murder mystery, it was all a little low key.
Steel-gray skies, a modest guard of honor and a somber ceremony as Yasser Arafat’s tomb was resealed.
It had taken scientists from Russia, France and Switzerland just a few hours to gather the evidence they came for.
No need to exhume the body. Instead they took samples that they will now examine for the deadly radioactive element polonium.
Already some experts warn that their findings are almost certain to be inconclusive.
Too much time has elapsed, they caution. And even if investigators find traces of toxin, it won’t answer this question: Who administered the fatal dose?
Arafat's body exhumed; experts to investigate if he was poisoned
No matter. Almost any Palestinian you ask already has an answer: Israel is the assassin.
After all, a man who was to Palestinians the ultimate fighter for freedom was to Israel too often the odious face of terror.
And in 30 years of conflict the Israelis pursued him to Lebanon before finally cornering him in his West Bank compound, the Muqata’a.
Rebuilt from the rubble left by its destruction by Israel, it now houses the gleaming marble mausoleum that is Arafat’s final resting place.
Today it was shrouded in blue sheets to shield the scientists from view as they went about their grim business.
"The time has come to find the proof. And to bring justice. I think he deserves it, and the Palestinian people deserve it,’’ says noted Palestinian activist Mustafa Barghouti.
Mohamad Torokman / Reuters
A Palestinian security forces member walks outside the grave of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Nov. 27, 2012.
For the record, Israel enters a strenuous plea of not guilty, courtesy of Ra’anan Gissan, who in 2004 was an adviser to Israel’s then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Did Israel order the death of Arafat? I ask him.
"I can tell you, a definite, absolute no,’’ he says. "They used to say that our snipers had Arafat in their sights and the decision was not to kill him."
Palestinians: Settlers threaten West Bank's centuries-old olive harvest tradition
Today's examination was prompted by a television investigation that found polonium on samples of clothing, including Arafat's iconic kaffiya headdress, provided by his widow.
But the timing is fortuitous, even if it is, as the Palestinians on the West Bank insist, a coincidence that later this week Arafat's successor heads to the United Nations.
Palestinians have begun to exhume the body of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat in an attempt to determine whether he was assassinated by lethal doses of radioactive poison. NBC's John Ray reports.
Mahmoud Abbas is to ask the UN General Assembly to grant his Palestinian Authority a form of recognition known as non-member observer status.
It would put the Palestinians on the same diplomatic footing as the Vatican but more crucially on open important legal route to potentially suing the Israel’s occupying forces for war crimes through international courts.
The mathematics is looking good for Abbas — good news for a leader who hasn’t had much to celebrate of late.
His Palestinian rivals in Gaza, the militants of Hamas, have been buoyed by the short war with Israel and claim they’ve achieved more in a week than Abbas has won in nearly a decade of failed negotiation.
Win at the UN on Thursday, and Abbas has something to show for his strategy.
Perhaps then even Yasser Arafat’s spirit might be permitted to rest a little more peacefully.
AP
See key moments and memorable scenes from Yasser Arafat's life.
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This article states that the eye of suspicion would fall on Israel. Of course it would. They wouldn't want it to fall on themselves. Israel had Arafat in their sights for 30 years. If they wanted to kill him they would have. Fatah and Hamas are at war. There's your killer, Hamas.
Seems like there are 2 or 3,000 more important things that could be covered by nbcnews.
Palestinians must indeed have many 'inquiring minds', or lack of them. One less Rat/
What was needed was enough of an exam to not only rule out polonium but to try to determine the actual cause of death. It is generally thought that Arafat died due to having AIDS, and I think that if the Palestinians want to learn the truth about the man who introduced terrorism to the world way back when, even pushing people in wheelchairs off of cruise ships because they were Jewish, I think that they ought to learn the whole truth, no matter what. But, of course, the Palestinians never want to deal with reality, be it about Jews, about Israel, about Gaza, about peace deals that were offered by rejected, etc. so they won't want to learn the truth here, either. The only reason this is being done is to find one more way to complain about Israel. They'll blame it on Israel if the exam finds nothing, just as they will if it finds something. Time for them to move forward, do the same as the world's other refugees after all these years, be happy wherever they're living, and get on with their lives, let the Israelis do the same!!!
Polonium-210 can be ruled out and/or nothing can be proven due to half life alone. Even then, it would prove nothing more than that Arafat was exposed to the stuff while playing around with it. But, none of his symptoms really match Polonium poisoning. Thing is, if he had that much in him to kill him and had it all over his clothes, he would also have contaminated his wife. But, she is still alive.
Pallywood doesn't think logically before they make wild claims and false accusations. They just do as Hitler taught and tell enough big lies often enough that the public come to believe them.
These people will use anything, even a dead dictator to blame every other person in the world for their own self made religious nut troubles.
Get rid of religion in the world and 99.9% of our troubles will be gone. All conflicts have a long thread that connects them to some religion or other.
Yeah, that worked real well in the former Soviet Union.
The other night I was sitting here reading a article on this subject while listening to the radio. They played the song "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire. It sent a chill through me on how eerily the lyrics of this song matches what is going on today. Almost hard to believe this song was released in 1965. Especially when the first sentence in the song goes:
"The Eastern world, it is exploding."
Scary!
Here is some truth that Jihadis have overlooked. Just as militant Islam fought to separate Pakistan from India, the Zionists fought to separate Israel from Palestine; but with one very important difference -- Hindus were creating a secular government in India, and were not trying to kill all of the Muslims. Muslims were organizing riots in Palestine and joining their Nazi friends in the Waffen-SS. It's a disgraceful history, and the Jews were correct in demanding self-defense. If what was left of Muslim Palestine was a nation, why did Jordan and Egypt divide it?
The only thing to hope for in digging up Arafat is that they could somehow bring him back to life so Israel can kill him again.
The Palestinians could have had a state of their own from Day One, in 1948, just as the Israelis did. But, they refused then and now, to accept anything less than every inch of their own land, plus every inch of Israel's land.
The original British Mandate for Palestine was that the Palestinians who did not want to stay in Palestine go to Transjordan (now Jordan). Palestine was supposed to have been set aside for the Jewish homeland. But, then the UN got it into their heads to divide the Palestine across ethnic lines, which the UN has zero legal powers to do. Both Jews and Arabs rejected those initial partition plans but now the UN is pushing for them again even though UN Resolution 242's author himself stated that Resolution 242 did not put such an idea onto Israel, and that it would be wrong and unsafe to push Israel back to the 1967 Green Line.
But, the UN just admitted "Palestine" to non-member State status and will now be looking for ways to do just what Resolution 242 was not supposed to do, forcing Israel to do what surrounding Arab nations want while giving these surrounding Arab nations a free pass not to comply with Resolution 242. Pretty sad state of affairs in UN, really.
I do believe that Israel could of iced Arafat whenever they wanted to. Maybe he died of life...It will get you every time.
You are right. They could have wiped him out before the Second Intifada. But they did not want to do so. They had no desire to go after him. If anyone wanted Arafat dead, it would have been members of his own Cabinet. Why do I think this?
When Arafat became ill and the French doctors refused to treat him with an American procedure that could have saved his life, I contacted members of the Palestinian Authority and told them about the condition Arafat had based on the symptoms, and the treatment, and requested them to demand that the French government make that treatment option available to Arafat. I heard not not a single peep out of any of the members of the Palestinian Authority I contacted. If they had wanted him alive they would have made at least that effort and would have contacted me to let me know what was going on from their end. They did nothing and let him die.
I honestly think the reason why they would have wanted him dead is because he expressed a willingness to recognize Israel as a Jewish State. None of those who succeed him wanted that. To this day they still oppose the idea of recognition of Israel as the Jewish State. Hamas has this rejection as an official part of their Charter. Mahmoud Abbas also has gone on record that he refuses to recognize a Jewish State. Whether any of them change their mind and adhere to their end of UN Resolution 242 in recognizing the sovereignty of Israel as a State, is anybody's guess.
So, if anyone is looking for the killers of Arafat (if one must insist that Arafat was murdered), look no further than the French government and the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority had motive. Israel did not because Arafat expressed a willingness to recognize Israel as a sovereign State--unlike his successors.
See? Why even investigate ?No matter what the outcome they'll blame Israel . SO what's the point?
Oh, there is a silver lining from such an investigation. They can blame Israel all they want but Israel had no motive to kill Arafat. The Palestinian Authority did have motive, on the other hand. It is also an interesting happenstance, coincidence, or whatever you want to call it, that not long after Arafat made the concession that he would be willing to recognize Israel as the Jewish State (a thing his own Cabinet and successors opposed), he lay dying in a French hospital. Members of the Palestinian Authority were contacted with information that could have save Arafat's life. None of them did a thing with that information. I think they wanted him dead. That is motive, in my opinion.
If it were found that he were murdered, Israel could then bring charges before the World Court against the Palestinian Authority, now that said Authority have just been offered the path to Statehood by the UN, for the murder of Arafat. Wouldn't that be an interesting twist using the information garnered in this investigation?!? :-)