A file photograph showing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat gesturing during a meeting with Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery (not pictured) in Arafat’s office in Ramallah on Saturday, April 10, 2004. (EPA)
London, Asharq Al-Awsat—In exclusive comments to Asharq Al-Awsat, the widow of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat revealed that her husband had asked her to discover what had sickened him prior to his death.
Suha Arafat said: “Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] told me, ‘My case is not natural and you must find out what has sickened me. These are not normal symptoms.’”
Arafat’s widow’s latest comments come after Swiss scientists confirmed that Arafat had ingested lethal radioactive polonium-210 before his death nine years ago.
“You don’t accidentally or voluntarily absorb a source of polonium—it’s not something that appears in the environment like that,” said Patrice Mangin, director of the laboratory that tested tissue samples to determine the former Palestinian leader’s cause of death.
Suha Arafat called on the Palestinian leadership to seek justice for her husband. She said: “The assassination of Abu Ammar has now been confirmed and there can be no doubt about this, and the Swiss scientists personally expressed their willingness to certify this and appear before any court as witnesses.”
She told Asharq Al-Awsat: “When Abu Ammar would come to Gaza, he would eat what I cooked for him at home, but in Ramallah, where he was besieged, he would eat what everybody else ate.”
Arafat was besieged by Israeli forces in his headquarters in Ramallah in the months before his death, and the Palestinians are now pointing the finger at Israel for Arafat’s polonium poisoning.
The Palestinian committee investigating Yasser Arafat’s death has said that Israel is the “only suspect.” During a press conference in Ramallah, the head of the committee, Tawfik Terawi, explicitly blamed Tel Aviv for the death.
“I say, with all the details available about Yasser Arafat’s death, that he was killed and that Israel killed him,” he said.
“We say that Israel is the prime, fundamental and only suspect in the case of Yasser Arafat’s assassination, and we will continue to carry out a thorough investigation to find out and confirm all the details and all elements of the case,” he added.
Before the Palestinians and others bend themselves into knots about this, and possibly do themselves some harm, they should think carefully.
Suha Arafat says that her husband said his symptoms were not natural, and she should investigate. But she refused all efforts to have an autopsy done, and then she did nothing for 7 years. She is not believable.
Further, the Swiss report does not state that Arafat was poisoned. Read the report, which is readily available. Also, the French and Russians have not released their reports. Before the Palestinians start shooting each other and throwing away all possibilities of a peace deal for another 10 years, they should show a LOT of skepticism. They’re being manipulated.