Who poisoned Yasser Arafat?
Although reports may have “confirmed” the source of Arafat’s
death, they may still not tell us who killed the Palestinian leader.
PHOTO: AFP
According to the investigation reports, there were indications that Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned (with Polonium), and thus, previous claims of his natural death were refuted.
Arafat died after his health severely deteriorated in his compound in Ramallah, in 2004, where more than 250 Palestinian leaders and officials were besieged and bombarded by the Israeli forces.
The mysterious nature of Arafat’s death always kept many puzzled. With the latest findings, I tried to reach out to a friend – working in Palestine for an advocacy think tank on Palestinian rights – to get insights on what the locals thought.
According to her, soon after Arafat’s death, people in both Palestine and Israel knew that he had been
poisoned, though both had doubts about the real culprits.
‘Israel did it’
Yes, fingers are being pointed towards a single culprit – Israel.
Israel, on the other hand, has clearly denied to what it calls ‘naive allegations’ from the Palestinian side. Having isolated Arafat in 2004, Israel also defends itself of having no reason or gain from eliminating Arafat.
But irrespective of what Israel claims, anti-Israel sentiment is again on the rise, with politicians in the Palestinian authority calling for severe actions against those responsible.
Tawfik Tirawi, an ex-Palestinian general and head of a Palestinian investigation team on Arafat’s death, was exceedingly vocal about Israel’s hand in Arafat’s murder. Yet Tarawai was hesitant to affirm the polonium findings and so, was holding Israel as the number one culprit, irrespective of the cause of death.
He said that,
“It is not important that I say here that he was killed by polonium, but I say, with all the details available about Yasser Arafat’s death, that he was killed, and that Israel killed him.”Such statements would obviously not help the cause of the fact finding missions and their reports.
Israel has been blamed, in light of previous events, and rightly so, such as Arial Sharon once threatening and eager to kill Arafat, along with Israel confining Arafat in a compound for more than two years. In the same compound where Arafat fell critically ill.
But if Arafat’s food was poisoned, someone from the inside had to make sure Arafat eats it. Thus, involvement of Arafat’s rivals in his murder could also not be written off. Because it was not only Israel or Mossad that may have wanted him dead, but also his strong political rivals who wished for a greater control over the Palestinian politics.
After all, Arafat was the sole unifying symbol in the Palestinian authority. He took the Palestinian cause to a level where no one else could, and was thus miles ahead in terms of stature compared to other local political leaders.
It was only after Arafat’s death that Hamas gained its influence in the Palestinian authority by violently forcing out the Fatah Movement from the Gaza strip in 2007, and taking control over it. Hamas also recently arrested a group of young people revolting against the movement in Gaza Strip – having alleged links to Fatah Movement – along with barring people from commemorating any sort of activities on Arafat’s anniversary. Furthermore, Hamas suddenly calling on the Palestinian Authority to launch “independent investigations” on Arafat’s death also seem to make little sense.
With such actions, Hamas is only attracting more attention towards itself.
Israel may not be the sole suspect of this crime, considering the multiple number of regional and global players involved in the Israel-Palestine conflict. After all, Hamas’s eventually gained its influence in Palestine on the back of Arafat’s death.
Furthermore, there is also a discrepancy in reports both by the Russian and Swedish scientists, with one playing cautious, where as the other playing safe. Even though both the reports found large traces of Polonium, the Russians believe the evidence of their findings to be inconclusive.
How would the Palestinians and Israelis react?
With all things in perspective, a major question regarding the peace process arises.
Would these latest findings affect the Palestinian peace process?
With a deadlock in talks already in place, what worse could happen?
Though the level of mistrust from Palestine may increase manifolds.
Arafat’s supporters may also pressurise the Palestinian officials to boycott any sort of peace offers from Tel Aviv – minimising the very limited hopes for peace in the region.
For the common people in Israel and their reaction to Arafat’s findings, the words of a Syrian colleague who worked in Tel Aviv, sums it up nicely. According to her,
“Israelis are only worried about the next bill that they have to pay and only a major bombing or conflict could change that thought!”Where would this all end up?
Although reports may have “confirmed” the source of Arafat’s death, they may still not tell us who killed the Palestinian leader.
Reactions, perceptions, estimations and emotions may all point towards Israel, yet involvement of someone close to Arafat could also not be ruled out; even with all justifications coming from Tel Aviv, this seems to be one mess that Israel would find hard cleaning.
