The mystery surrounding the 2004 death of Yasser Arafat, at the Percy military hospital near Paris, continues to hover over Fatah and the Palestinian Authority.
The sixth Fatah convention on Thursday made no official decision about his death. But more than 2,000 delegates rose to applaud the late leader's nephew Nasser al-Kidwa, former PLO ambassador to the UN, when he demanded the congress officially denounce Israel for being behind the "assassination" of the late PA chairman.
The affair resurfaced in the Palestinian discourse a few weeks ago in the wake of accusations by PLO enfant terrible Farouk Kaddoumi, head of the organization's state department. Kaddoumi accused Arafat's successor, PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas and PA senior official Mohamed Dahlan, of conspiring with Israel to murder Arafat.
This accusation is groundless. Even if one believes the allegations against Israel, the thought that then-prime minister Ariel Sharon enlisted senior Palestinian figures to plot against Arafat defies all reason. But Kaddoumi's accusations were enough to ignite a lively argument in the Arab world, and al-Kidwa's declaration Thursday fell on fertile ground.
To read full Haaretz story — Go Here Now.
|
