Yasser Arafat?

[bigboab]

Is Yasser Arafat dead? Is his death being kept secret in case it exasparates the Middle East situation. A delegation from Palestine arranges to fly and see him. His wife steps in and says 'No, you cant see him'.Its on, its off etc.

What is going on. Are they hiding his death for political or military purposes. Why are we contnually given his condition by a French 'military' person. What happened to all the 'Western' reporters who generally tell you whether the patient 'farted or picked his nose at 5.30 a.m. this morning'.

Is this poor 'military' person the 'fall guy' for 'misinterpretation' (No pun intended) at a later date? It all seems strange to me. What do other members think?

[ruthie]

I think he might be dead. Might not be..lol. His wife has every right to not let people go look at him, if he is alive.
I have wondered the same thing for quite awhile now..is he dead? I think they are afraid of what will happen as far as stability goes. The saga continues..

[Rat Faced]

Yasser Arafat hovered on the brink of death in a Paris hospital tonight – being kept alive artificially while a cleric flew from the West Bank to be by his side.


The Palestinian leadership visited the comatose 75-year-old in the military hospital and Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath ruled out any suggestion of removing Arafat from life support.

“His brain, his heart and his lungs are still functioning and he is alive,” Shaath said in Paris.

“I don’t see any reason to make rumours precipitating his death,” he added.

“I want to rule out any question of euthanasia. People talk like his life is plugged in and plugged out.”

But another senior Palestinian official said Arafat had only hours to live after suffering a brain haemorrhage .

This was 25 minutes ago... :unsure:

Source (http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3737608)

[vidcc]

i think he is officially "undead"

[bigboab]

:) I'll believe that when I see his gravestone with a saline drip on it.:)

[MagicNakor]

I heard the story was that his wife is afraid of conspirators to come in and take him off life-support?

:shuriken:

[Comic_Peddler]

Arafat's death to be announced
10/11/2004 08:10 - (SA)

Ramallah - The death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is to be officially announced on Wednesday at his Muqataa headquarters in Ramallah, a Palestinian official said.

"The death of President Arafat should be announced on Wednesday after meetings of the central committee of Fatah and the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) to be held at the Muqataa," said the official who asked to remain anonymous.

Arafat's Fatah movement is the main component of the PLO.

The announcement of the ailing 75-year-old leader's death had been expected after the return here early on Wednesday of four top Palestinians from a visit to Percy military hospital at Clamart near Paris where Arafat was admitted 13 days ago.

Foreign minister Nabil Shaath said before leaving Paris that Arafat was gravely ill but still alive and there was no question of switching off life-support equipment.

Following conflicting rumours, Shaath told journalists Arafat's condition had worsened and he was in a deep coma, but that his heart, brain and lungs were functioning.

Shaath was accompanied on a 24-hour visit to Paris by three other top Palestinians - prime minister Ahmed Qorei, parliamentary speaker Rawhi Fattuh and PLO number two Mahmud Abbas.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1618660,00.html

[BigBank_Hank]

I think that he’s been kept alive mainly to make security preparations. There was also talk that he had a massive amount of money in a Swiss bank account and no one but him knew how to access the money and supposedly his wife was trying to gain access. Now mind you that know one knows the truth about anything going on in there so its all speculation.

[sArA]

Personally, I think he has probably been dead for a while...its just that no-one dare say anything until the leadership issues are resolved for fear of the shit really hitting the fan in the region.

[Rat Faced]

A lot of the Palestinian money is in accounts in Arafats name...

This wasn't due to any greed on his part as most papers will make you believe.. Israel, the EU, USA and Arab states all paid into these accounts.

It was used for the Palestinian People, in ways that would not be acceptable to some of his Government... ie Bribes etc

There is now a problem, in that he deliberatly set it up so that if he died his wife/family couldnt get at it without the Palestinian Money and His own Money being seperated first.... The trouble is the accounts are totally fucked up too for the last 5 or 6 years...

No one knows now, for sure, what money is his and what is the Palestinians... so they are trying to buy the missus off :unsure:

[j2k4]

A lot of the Palestinian money is in accounts in Arafats name...

This wasn't due to any greed on his part as most papers will make you believe.. Israel, the EU, USA and Arab states all paid into these accounts.

This is kind of interesting; why would Israel have contributed, do you think?

Were they trying to buy good press?

Cooperation?

Were I them, I'd ask for a refund.

It was used for the Palestinian People, in ways that would not be acceptable to some of his Government... ie Bribes etc

There is now a problem, in that he deliberatly set it up so that if he died his wife/family couldnt get at it without the Palestinian Money and His own Money being seperated first.... The trouble is the accounts are totally fucked up too for the last 5 or 6 years...

Might I suggest you delete "deliberately" and insert "purportedly"?

You might also embolden the phrase "totally fucked-up", just by way of clarification, Rat.

No one knows now, for sure, what money is his and what is the Palestinians... so they are trying to buy the missus off :unsure:

I'm sure that, were Arafat healthy, there would be no doubt whatsoever whose money was whose.

[uNz[i]]

Arafat's death announced by senior aide (http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=619013&section=news)

[Rat Faced]

My Sympathies go out to his family and friends.

And to all those Israeli's and Palestinians that actually want peace.

Blessed Be

[Peerzy]

PARIS - BULLETIN: Al-Jazeera television and The Associated Press are reporting that Yasser Arafat is dead.

Earlier, as a top Islamic cleric read passages from the Quran at Yasser Arafat's hospital bedside Wednesday, a Palestinian official gave the bleakest assessment yet of the leader’s condition, saying he is suffering from kidney and liver failure and that his brain is only partially functioning.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, speaking in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said the 75-year-old Arafat was in a deep coma and that all his organs except for heart and lungs “are not functioning well.”

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said Wednesday night that Arafat was in his “final hours,” telling France-2 television: “I hope that we can respect the final hours of a man who is approaching death.”

As Arafat’s condition deteriorated, aides made plans to fly his body to Cairo for a funeral, then to his Ramallah headquarters. Palestinians also selected his immediate successor, saying parliament speaker Rauhi Fattouh will become temporary president of the Palestinian Authority at Arafat’s death.
Source (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6402008/)

:crying::crying::crying:

[Spam-King]

I heard his last request was to get buried in Jerusalem, can’t see that happening

[j2k4]

All aboard the Peace Train?

This should be interesting. ;)

[uNz[i]]

All aboard the Peace Train?

This should be interesting. ;)
Somehow I doubt the Peace Train is gonna arrive anytime soon, j2.
...and don't we have enough "interesting" things going on in the world already? :(

[ilw]

On November 5 1995, I went as usual to my office in East Jerusalem, next door to the Orient House, where the Palestinian leadership had its headquarters. I worked for the human rights advocate, Lea Tzemel. Lea and myself, two Jewish Israeli women working in a Palestinian neighbourhood, were already a familiar part of the street's scene. But this morning was different. When I went into the corner shop to buy cigarettes, the owner, Izzat Fraytah, greeted me with a grave face. "My condolences," he said. It took me a few seconds to realise he was conveying his sympathy for the death of the prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, who had been assassinated the night before by a rightwing radical.

Izzat was a sympathiser of the Islamist opposition organisations, and an opponent of the Oslo accords signed two years earlier by Rabin and Yasser Arafat, but his feelings were genuine. "It's a sad day for you," he said, "and for us." During the day, dozens of the street's residents climbed the four floors to our office to express their sorrow. Clients who came to inquire about the fate of their family members were apologetic for troubling me on this day of mourning.

I was overwhelmed by their decency, and embarrassed. I knew what a bitter enemy Rabin had been to the Palestinian people. He was the one, after all, who issued the order to "break the hands and legs of every stone-thrower" during the first intifada, which led Israeli soldiers to break the limbs of every young man in the villages of Beita and Hawara, leaving only one with his legs intact, so that he could run and break the news.

Many of the visitors who offered their sympathy had lost sons, husbands and brothers to Rabin's "iron fist" policies. Thousands were still, despite the Oslo accords, locked in Israeli administrative detention for "security offences". The permanent closure policy on the West Bank and Gaza was taking its economic toll on the people. And yet my neighbours' kind behaviour was not unique. One by one the leaders of the Palestinian Authority were interviewed by the Israeli media, talking of their grief. Arafat got special permission to visit the bereaved widow, Lea Rabin, in Tel Aviv, and sat with her, tears in his eyes.

All these memories came back to me as Yasser Arafat lay on his deathbed, unaware of the glee expressed by most Israelis. The Israeli government announced, as soon as he was flown to Paris, that he would not be allowed to be buried in Jerusalem. Inbal Gavrieli, member of the Knesset, shouted at Ahmad Tibi, an Arab member of the Knesset, that Arafat was "a dog". Many Israeli politicians followed suit with insults directed at the dying Palestinian leader. Israeli comedians, who nowadays shy away from political satire directed at their own leaders, have been mocking Arafat with the most degrading impersonations. A festive atmosphere has taken over the country.

"Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth," says the Old Testament, but too many Israelis are blinded by hatred and self-righteousness to remember these beautiful words. The consequences of Arafat's death festival will haunt us for years. And for this cruel folly Israelis and Palestinians are likely to pay in the currency of innocent blood.

bit one sided, but interesting none the less i thought.

[lynx]

Sharon, the one who said Arafat was the obstacle to peace, now says that even with Arafat gone nothing will change unless "they (the Palestinian leaders) wage a war on terror".

More preconditions. Why am I not surprised.

Note to Jonno - look, we do criticise other nations. ;)

[Biggles]

Sharon, the one who said Arafat was the obstacle to peace, now says that even with Arafat gone nothing will change unless "they (the Palestinian leaders) wage a war on terror".

More preconditions. Why am I not surprised.

Note to Jonno - look, we do criticise other nations. ;)

Sharron is endeavouring to dictate the terms and borders of any proposed Palestinian State. Clearly that is not going to smooth the way for any Palestinian leader to take the deal back to his people regardless of how democratic and peaceful the Palestinians are.

Sharron is offerring Gaza and taking a fair chunk of the West Bank. The Palestinians want Gaza, the West Bank and the right to return to homes and villages they fled in 48 and 67. Given that many of these homes have been occupied by Israelis and to allow the Palestinians back would upset domestic politics (i.e. they won't vote Likud) there is little chance of this happening.

The only workable compromise is a wholly Palestinian West Bank and Gaza without the "right to return". Sharron is supported by the far right whose main power base is in the orthodox settlements in the West Bank. Even if Sharron was of a mind to give up the all of the West Bank (which he isn't) then he would have political difficulties trying to achieve it.

In addition to this, Bush has sent mixed messages regarding the West Bank, hinting that the Israelis could stay. The European position (including the UK) is that the Israelis should observe UN resolutions and remove their settlements.

The upshot of this is that whilst there is a possibility that movement might occur (as Arafat refused to concede the "right to return") but unless the Israelis concede the West Bank there will be nothing to discuss.

I did hear some junior Whitehouse spokesman say that "too much is made of the settlements" and that they are only "a few houses" - the reverse of this of course is that if it is such a little deal why not move them? Any cursory glance at a West Bank map will show a polka dot pattern. There are settlements scattered all over the place making it impossible to set up a unified Palestinian State while they are still there.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/v3_israel_palestinians/maps/html/settlements_checkpoints.stm