Official PA daily: Israel assassinated Arafat “with poison”
Headline: "The 17th anniversary of the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada (i.e., PA terror campaign 2000-2005)"
"Martyr [former PLO and PA Chairman Yasser] Arafat was accused of not making concessions that could lead to the signing of an agreement that outlined the character of the independent Palestinian state. On Thursday afternoon, Sept. 28, 2000, confrontations were recorded between [Palestinian] worshippers and young angry people and the occupation police, its border guard, and its special forces, which broke into the Al-Aqsa Mosque plaza in order to guard its defilement by the leader of the extremist Likud party, [later Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon, and a number of right-wing people from his party… The occupation escalated the type of confrontations, and its airplanes killed a prominent leader in the Fatah Movement, Hussein Abayat (i.e., terrorist, involved in numerous attacks), on Nov. 9, [2000,] after his car was blown up by rockets in Bethlehem… Later the rate of Israeli assassinations - including most of the Palestinian factions and their commanders - increased, the most prominent being the assassination of Yasser Arafat with poison (see note below –Ed.) after laying siege to his headquarters in Ramallah."
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Hussein Abayat - Commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the West Bank. He was involved in shooting attacks against civilians and military in the Bethlehem area, including the murder of Sgt. Max Hazan and the injuring of border policeman Shimon Ohana. Abayat was killed in November 2000 when he was hit by a rocket fired by an IDF helicopter.
Following PLO and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's death in November 2004, the PA created the libel that Israel murdered Arafat, and it has been spreading it since then. Swiss, Russian, and French teams have studied these claims. In 2012, samples were taken from Arafat’s remains to be tested for poisoning, and Swiss and Russian teams afterwards published the results of their tests: The Swiss team concluded that the tests were "coherent with a hypothesis of poisoning" - but a member of the team also stated that "our study did not permit us to demonstrate categorically the hypothesis of poisoning by polonium." The Russian report concluded that "there was insufficient evidence to support the theory that Yasser Arafat died in 2004 by polonium poisoning." [Reuters, Nov. 8, 2013] In March 2015, three French judges ruled that "it has not been demonstrated that Mr. Yasser Arafat was murdered by polonium-210 poisoning." The French prosecutor stated that there was "not sufficient evidence of an intervention by a third party who could have attempted to take his life." [France 24, Sept. 2, 2015] The French prosecutor also explained that the polonium and lead found in Arafat’s grave were “of an environmental nature.” [Jerusalem Post, March 17, 2015].
Despite these results, the PA continues to blame Israel for Arafat’s death without any proof or backing for this claim.
"Martyr [former PLO and PA Chairman Yasser] Arafat was accused of not making concessions that could lead to the signing of an agreement that outlined the character of the independent Palestinian state. On Thursday afternoon, Sept. 28, 2000, confrontations were recorded between [Palestinian] worshippers and young angry people and the occupation police, its border guard, and its special forces, which broke into the Al-Aqsa Mosque plaza in order to guard its defilement by the leader of the extremist Likud party, [later Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon, and a number of right-wing people from his party… The occupation escalated the type of confrontations, and its airplanes killed a prominent leader in the Fatah Movement, Hussein Abayat (i.e., terrorist, involved in numerous attacks), on Nov. 9, [2000,] after his car was blown up by rockets in Bethlehem… Later the rate of Israeli assassinations - including most of the Palestinian factions and their commanders - increased, the most prominent being the assassination of Yasser Arafat with poison (see note below –Ed.) after laying siege to his headquarters in Ramallah."
Click to view bulletin
Hussein Abayat - Commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the West Bank. He was involved in shooting attacks against civilians and military in the Bethlehem area, including the murder of Sgt. Max Hazan and the injuring of border policeman Shimon Ohana. Abayat was killed in November 2000 when he was hit by a rocket fired by an IDF helicopter.
Following PLO and PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's death in November 2004, the PA created the libel that Israel murdered Arafat, and it has been spreading it since then. Swiss, Russian, and French teams have studied these claims. In 2012, samples were taken from Arafat’s remains to be tested for poisoning, and Swiss and Russian teams afterwards published the results of their tests: The Swiss team concluded that the tests were "coherent with a hypothesis of poisoning" - but a member of the team also stated that "our study did not permit us to demonstrate categorically the hypothesis of poisoning by polonium." The Russian report concluded that "there was insufficient evidence to support the theory that Yasser Arafat died in 2004 by polonium poisoning." [Reuters, Nov. 8, 2013] In March 2015, three French judges ruled that "it has not been demonstrated that Mr. Yasser Arafat was murdered by polonium-210 poisoning." The French prosecutor stated that there was "not sufficient evidence of an intervention by a third party who could have attempted to take his life." [France 24, Sept. 2, 2015] The French prosecutor also explained that the polonium and lead found in Arafat’s grave were “of an environmental nature.” [Jerusalem Post, March 17, 2015].
Despite these results, the PA continues to blame Israel for Arafat’s death without any proof or backing for this claim.
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