A positive action that actually supports Abbas’ words.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas fired top Gaza security commanders Thursday, Palestinian security officials said, hours after militants fired dozens of mortar shells and homemade rockets at Jewish settlements there.
…
The report came after Abbas ordered security forces to stop militants from firing mortars and rockets at Jewish settlements in Gaza.
- Fox News
HAARETZ: Fatah chooses Abbas as candidate to replace Arafat as PA chairman
Fatah formally chose former premier Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) on Monday as its candidate to replace Yasser Arafat as chairman of the Palestinian Authority in January 9 elections, a Palestinian official said.Abbas, 69, Arafat’s longtime deputy as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, has already been named head of the PLO. If elected president of the Palestinian Authority, he would inherit two of Arafat’s main titles. Arafat died November 11.
Abbas served as Arafat’s first prime minister in 2003. However, he resigned after just four months in power.
The Fatah Central Committee, the movement’s main decision-making body, picked Abbas as its nominee at a meeting in Ramallah late Monday, said Intissar al-Wazir, a member of the body.
Wait… didn’t they report earlier that… or state earlier that… or swear that… he wasn’t… but is…
HAARETZ: Qureia: We will inform Palestinians of cause of Arafat’s death
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia told the Associated Press on Friday that there was no doubt that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s medical records - which French officials have refused to release publicly - would come to light.“When we get this report, we will study it and hear the opinions of the doctors,” Qureia said, “and then we will inform the Palestinian people with all the details about the health situation of President Arafat and what led to his death.”
Arafat’s nephew, Nasser al-Kidwa, headed to Paris on Friday to obtain the medical records related to the PA chairman’s death, a Palestinian official said Thursday.
The Bush administration is planning to give $20 million in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority in a renewed push for peace in the Middle East.The administration on Wednesday notified key congressional committees of its plans, which could be announced when outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell meets with Palestinian officials in West Bank early next week.
In a related article from JINSA
We congratulate Dr. Condoleezza Rice on her nomination as Secretary of State and sincerely wish her well in a difficult task. Not only does she have to represent American government policy to foreign governments, she has to represent President Bush’s policy to the State Department. We hope one of her first duties will be to banish those who were responsible for an official American presence at Yasser Arafat’s funeral. Israeli sources report that top-level Iranians involved in anti-U.S. activity and international terror were talking to Palestinians at the funeral while U.S. envoy William Burns was standing there. We’re not surprised that they used the opportunity to discuss mischief. Whose bright idea was it to send President Bush’s “respects” in any event - President Bush had already made it clear enough that he didn’t respect Arafat.Dr. Rice could do the President a further service by promising to work with Congress to protect the transparency of the $20 million Colin Powell is planning to deliver to the PA as he exits the government.
Twenty million dollars is both a lot of money and a drop in the bucket. It is pennies toward the “creation of institutions that serve the needs of the Palestinian people,” which President Bush called for in his seminal speech of June 24, 2002. To really help the people (and we’re being VERY generous here, because the demonstration of wanton violence and naked hatred during Arafat’s burial gives us serious pause about wanting to do anything for those people) would take all the billions Arafat stole and Suha spent. It would also take a redirection of money away from 12 security services, preachers as paid fomenters of violence and a wholesale purge of the Palestinian media, school system and UNRWA. THEN, we could talk about helping the Palestinian people (such as they are).
HAARETZ: Arafat’s medical records could be relaesed to al-Kidwa
Creating an out from a sticky diplomatic problem, French authorities said Thursday they would release Yasser Arafat’s medical records to his nephew if he asks for them, which could help demystify the cause of the Palestinian Authority chairman’s death.Officials here insist that French law prevents them from making Arafat’s medical records public, and they have refused to announce the cause of his death in a Paris-area military hospital on November 11.
The lack of information has proved fertile ground for widespread rumors in the Arab world that Israel poisoned Arafat, despite official denials. It also left the quality of care that Arafat received in France open to question and charges that perhaps not everything was done to save him.
The mystery and rumors also risk complicating life for Arafat’s successors as they take over the reins of power. That, too, goes against France’s wishes, which says it wants a smooth transition for the Palestinian Authority.
Because Arafat’s nephew Nasser al-Kidwa is also the Palestinian representative to the United Nations, giving him the records offers France a way out, allowing it to abide by medical privacy laws that restrict information to family members while also responding to the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to determine the cause of Arafat’s death. Giving al-Kidwa the medical records would also put the onus on him to explain the cause of death.
HAARETZ: 5 Palestinian factions to field joint candidate for PA chair
Five Palestinian factions, including two radical groups, have agreed to field a joint candidate in the January 9 election to replace the late Yasser Arafat as Palestinian Authority chairman, an official said Thursday.Two of the groups, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PLFP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, boycotted the previous Palestinian election in 1996.
Both factions rejected Arafat’s interim peace deals with Israel.
The factions, which also include the Struggle Front, People’s Party and Democratic Federation (FIDA) - all of them small groups - agreed in recent meetings in Gaza to run a joint candidate, but have yet to select one.
On Tuesday, Abdel-Sattar Qassem, a longtime critic of Arafat, and Talal Seder al-Ayyoubi, one of Arafat’s loyalists, became the first to announce their candidacy in the January poll.
Al-Ayyoubi was once Yasser Arafat’s Sports Minister and more recently served as his adviser on religious affairs.
MAARIV: Barghouti will decide next week whether to run in PA elections
Marwan Barghouti will decide next week whether to run in the upcoming January 9 elections in the Palestinian Authority, the close associates of the inmate said.“On Saturday, the list of candidates for office is to officially open”, one of the former Tanzim leader’s confidantes said this morning. “During next week, Barghouti will decide whether to run”, he noted.
Another source close to Barghouti confirmed the details of the report and said, “His decision will be announced next week”.
Political sources in Jerusalem told NRG Maariv that even if Barghouti announces his candidacy, Israel has no intentions of releasing him. “He was sentenced by an Israeli court to five life terms. One cannot make a mockery of a court decision”, they said.
Now that elections have been announced, let the list of gambits and demands begin…
HAARETZ: Interim PA chairman: No elections if no vote in East J’lem
If there are no elections for the Palestinian Authority chairman in East Jerusalem, Israel Radio quoted the interim PA leader as saying Tuesday, then there will be no elections at all.
Speaking to the Al-Arabiya satellite channel, Rouhi Fattouh said Tuesday that he would not stand in the January elections, and joined former Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan in voicing his support for PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas in the vote.“Abu Mazen [Abbas] is the candidate and he will be unanimously elected,” said Fattouh, who was sworn in as PA chairman on the day of Arafat’s death.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom pledged Monday all possible help for the Palestinians in holding the elections, but said that while the 200,000 Arabs who live in East Jerusalem could vote, they would not be permitted to do so in the capital.
“Jerusalem is the eternal capital - undivided capital - of Israel and of course we will do everything to keep it that way,” Shalom said after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.
“There will be no elections in Jerusalem,” although the Palestinians will be able to ballot by mail, as they have in the past, Shalom said, citing the precedent of 1996, when he said they were able to mail in their votes.
“Even in the example of the last election in 1996, there were no elections in Jerusalem. Those Palestinians voted then, only through envelopes, through the mail office,” Shalom said.
UPDATE:
Mohammed Dahlan has dropped out. Apparently his “We’ll win the voters in Jenin and Bethlehem and Jericho and Gaza and Tulkarm and YEEEEAAARRRGGGHHHHH!” meltdown doomed him.
UPDATE:
From Haaretz ticker: Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom says East Jerusalem Arabs will be allowed to vote in PA elections in the capital, despite former objection.
AP: Palestinians Set Jan. 9 for Election
Palestinian officials scheduled presidential elections for Jan. 9, 2005, pushing forward with steps to a secure a new leader following the death of Yasser Arafat.The vote, announced by caretaker Palestinian leader Rauhi Fattouh, is a key test for the Palestinians, who want a smooth transition of power and hope for renewed international involvement in Mideast peacemaking.
Arafat, who died Thursday, led the Palestinians for four decades and refused to appoint a successor.
Candidates will be allowed to submit their papers for the ballot for 12 days, beginning on Nov. 20. The campaigning period will last from Dec. 27 until Jan. 8, Fattouh said.
Sources believe that Marwan Barghouti, convincted on multiple counts of murder, will sit out these elections.
HERE WE GO AGAIN:
From the Haaretz ticker: “Fatah central committee sources: Abbas not movement`s official candidate for PA chairman.”
The Barghouti Gambit may still be on.
WASHINGTON TIMES/UPI: Yasser on Yasser: Martyr par excellence
The last Western news organization to interview Yasser Arafat found him steeped in conspiracy theories and devoted to nursing his image as a martyr.His aides, for example, told a Washington Times reporter he was not to ask about Arafat’s birthplace, which his birth certificate says was Cairo, the newspaper reported Friday.
Arafat wanted to be thought of as being born in Jerusalem, thus boosting Palestinian claims to the ancient city as their capital.
The leader, who died this week in a French hospital, also accused Israel’s prime minister of the 1995 murder of Yitzak Rabin, a Labor prime minister, and of using depleted uranium against Palestinians.
As proof of the uranium accusation, Arafat said Palestinians were suffering from infertility and cancer at rates similar to those noted in Nagasaki and Hiroshima after U.S. aircraft dropped atomic bombs on those cities. However, none of the West Bank cancer specialists contacted by the newspaper had ever seen evidence of elevated cancer levels among Palestinians or unique fertility problems.
And rather than sleep in a large new bedroom built at his compound after a 2002 clash with Israeli forces he chose a smaller room that had been heavily damaged in such clashes — a room he was fond of showing reporters.
The Associated Press reports that President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged their support for a fresh attempt to broker peace between the Israelis and Plasestinians. The president said it was up to Palestinians to elect a democratic government and Arafat’s successors to allow freedoms to take root:
“We’ll hold their feet to the fire to make sure that democracy prevails,” he said.
President Bush was optimistic about the prospects for a Palestinian state:
“I intend to use the next four years to spend the capital of the United States on such a state,” Bush said. “I believe it is in the interests of the world that such a truly free state develop. I know it is in the interest of the Palestinian people.”
He said there was a “new opportunity” for resolving the decades-old stalemate and put the onus on the new Palestinian leadership.
The United States is “looking forward to working with Palestinian leaders who are committed to fighting terrorism and committed to democratic reform,” Bush said.
From California Yankee.
(presented without comment)
The The United Nations General Assembly has an archived RealPlayer stream of those praising and mourning Yasser Arafat’s passing.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (search) was laid to rest Friday in the same Ramallah compound where he had been besieged by Israeli forces for most of the past three years.Muslim clerics read Quranic verses after Arafat’s body was lowered into a marble-and-stone grave, security officials said. A handful of soil from Jerusalem’s Temple Mount was scattered onto the coffin.
Earlier, tens of thousands of Palestinian men, some masked and carrying assault rifles, greeted the Jordanian military helicopters carrying Arafat’s funeral procession as they landed in the compound.
Palestinian police pushed back the crowd to clear a space for the helicopters to land as chants of “Welcome, Abu Ammar,” Arafat’s nom de guerre, rang out. But as soon as the aircraft had touched down, the crowd surged forward, preventing anyone or anything from disembarking for some time.
Update:
A car bomb blew up a few miles from Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters Friday just as the helicopter carrying the Palestinian leader’s body was set to land in the West Bank city, Israel TV reported.
From the AFP via The Australian :
The French military doctors who treated Yasser Arafat up to his death refused today to say what the 75-year-old Palestinian leader died of, saying it was private information meant for his family only.”I have no declaration to make on that subject,” a spokesman for the French military’s medical service, Christian Estripeau, told AFP.
“It is not up to the defence forces’ health service to reveal information given to the family.”
[…]
Mr Arafat’s wife Suha, however, has tightly restricted any information about her husband’s medical state.
AL-JAZEERA: Palestinians, Arabs mourn Arafat
On the other hand, Kuwaitis shed no tears over the death of Arafat, who had always refused to apologise for his support of the 1990 Iraqi invasion of the oil-rich emirate.State-run TV and radio stations did not even interrupt their normal programming to make the announcement. They briefly reported his death during newscasts and continued with normal programming.
There still was no official reaction from the government by early afternoon.
The small emirate accused Arafat of supporting Saddam Hussein, who sent his troops to occupy Kuwait in August 1990, and had refused to mend fences with the Palestinians before an official apology from Arafat.
As much as Kuwaitis loved Arafat and supported the Palestinian cause before the 1990 invasion, they hated him afterwards and often charged that his hands were stained with Kuwaiti blood.
Hours before Arafat’s death, Kuwait’s Information Minister Muhammad Abu al-Hassan and several lawmakers recalled Arafat’s support for Saddam and branded him a “traitor”.
Nevertheless, Palestinians in the emirate grieved the loss of Arafat on Thursday.
Some 80,000 Palestinians and Jordanians of Palestinian origin live and work in Kuwait, down from more than 400,000 before the Iraqi invasion. The rest either fled during the invasion or were expelled from the emirate.
The government said Friday’s service would be a military funeral, as opposed to a state funeral, underscoring Arafat’s failure to achieve Palestinian statehood.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured into the streets of the Gaza Strip in a spontaneous show of grief. Dozens of gunmen fired into the air, and marchers waved Palestinian flags. Mosques blared Quranic verses and children burned tires on the main streets, covering the skies in black smoke. People pasted posters of Arafat on building walls.
he Palestinian Authority ordered a 40 days’ mourning in the Palestinian territories following Yasser Arafat’s death, the secretary of the Palestinian presidency Tayeb Abdelrahim announced.Shops are closed Trades are closed for three days and administrations for seven days, but mourning will be extended to during 40 days during which flags will be put at half-mast and celebrations cancelled, Abdelrahim stressed.
Multiple reports: Yasser Arafat is finally dead for the last time.
CBS, Fox News, Al-Jazeera…
Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a top Arafat aide, confirmed that Arafat died at 4:30 am Paris time. He spoke to reporters at Arafat’s headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Arafat’s body will be taken from France to Cairo, where the Egyptian government will host a state funeral for him, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.He will be buried outside the Palestinian Authority headquarters compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah — a resting place Erakat called temporary.
JERUSALEM POST: Window space overlooking Mukata at a premium
Since the evening of Thursday November 4th, 2004, 685 foreign journalists and their crews have arrived at the Government Press Office in order to cover Yasser Arafat’s illness and funeral.The large media organizations have brought in approximately 100 tons of media equipment including: satellite dishes, Mobile Broadcasting Units (MBUs), and video and technical equipment relating to their work in the media.
Security administration officials told The Jerusalem Post that Palestinian families living in apartments that overlook the Mukata have been renting out window space to foreign TV networks at the price of $5,000 a window.
Similar leasing arrangements have taken place for apartments and buildings overlooking the Vatican.
HAARETZ: Arafat’s powers to be split three ways
Palestinian leaders meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday decided to divide Yasser Arafat’s powers among Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization and first Palestinian premier Mahmoud Abbas, and Palestinian Legislative Council chairman Rawhi Fatuh.
The Palestinian leaders decided Abbas (Abu Mazen) will control the PLO (which is formally above the Palestinian Authority), Qureia (Abu Ala) will be responsible for the PA government and the National Security Council, and Fatuh will take Arafat’s official position as PA chairman.The division of powers is expected to take effect immediately, as Arafat is said to be in the “final phase” of his life in a deep coma at a Paris hospital.
Palestinian law determines that in the case of the PA chairman’s absence or death, the chairman of the parliament will take his place for 60 days, after which new elections will be held. The Palestinian leaders decided Wednesday that if no elections take place within that time, the PLC will meet to decide what to do.
And then within the Israeli Knesset itself…
HAARETZ: MK Tibi: In the end, Arafat will be buried in Al-Aqsa
Yasser Arafat will ultimately be buried in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem, even if the step is years away, Israeli Arab MK and former Arafat advisor Ahmed Tibi said in remarks broadcast Wednesday.
Israel strongly opposes burying Arafat anywhere in Jerusalem and its environs. Official Israeli opposition is particularly fierce with respect to Palestinian demands that Arafat be buried in or near Al-Aqsa, on the compound Muslims revere as the Noble Sanctuary and Jews hold sacred as the Temple Mount.At the weekend, Justice Minister Yosef Lapid touched off a furor by declaring that the Temple Mount was a site “where Jewish kings are buried, and not Arab terrorists.” Arafat has also angered Jews in past statements dismissing Jewish historical claims to the compound, the site of the ancient temples.
“In the end,” Tibi told Israel Radio, “if he is not buried today or tomorrow in East Jerusalem, a day will come when there is a sovereign Palestinian government, a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, and Yasser Arafat will be buried in the mosque of Al-Aqsa.
“This is definite. This will be,” Tibi said.
Tibi was once an advisor to Yasser Arafat, but now is a parliamentarian within the government of Arafat’s enemy. Significantly worse than John Kerry’s meeting with North Vietnamese officials, I’d say.
Finally:
HAARETZ: Muslim cleric: Arafat alive; PA envoy: This is ‘final phase’
A top Islamic cleric who arrived in Paris on Wednesday to attend Yasser Arafat’s bedside said he had seen the Palestinian leader was alive, while the Palestinian envoy to France, Leila Shaheed, warned earlier in the day that Arafat is in the “final phase” of his life.
Speaking after his visit at the Paris hospital where Arafat is in critical condition, Sheikh Taisser Bayoud Tamimi said that he “remains alive.” He earlier ruled out disconnecting the Palestinian leader from life-support machines.“Yes, he is sick and his condition is very difficult but he remains alive,” Tamimi told reporters in Arabic after his visit at the hospital in Paris where Arafat is being treated.
Asked about turning off life-support systems as he arrived at the hospital, Tamimi said: “This is forbidden under Islamic law.”
“As long as there is a manifestation of life present, from movement to temperature in the body, then he is alive,” he said before entering the hospital.
“I will stay next to the president calling for his recovery and for mercy,” he added.
Earlier reports had a spokesman saying that Arafat’s life was not something to be plugged in or unplugged, denying that he was on life support, and denying that he’d been in a coma when he’d been in a coma for a week.
Burial preparations are being made at Ramallah and funeral/memorial preparations are being made in Cairo as Yasser’s body will pass through Cairo.
UPDATE:
Shahid lashes out:
HAARETZ: PA envoy: Arafat fighting for his as we fight the Israeli media
Palestinian Authority representative in Paris Leila Shahred said Wednesday that PA Chairman Yasser Arafat was fighting for his life, and that PA officials were fighting the Israeli media. Shaheed accused the Israeli government and some Israeli media outlets of directed and false reports regarding Arafat’s death.
Speaking to Haaretz, Shaheed voiced her complaints against Channel 2, which she claims killed Arafat last week, when there was no confirmation of the report. She accused the Israeli government of saying that Sheikh Taisser Bayoud Tamimi arrived in Paris to permit disconnecting Arafat from life-support systems. Shaheed said that it was illogical that a shiekh of Tamimi’s status would come to do such a thing, or would support such a thing. Shaheed refused to grant Channel 2 an interview.Regarding the vast number of rumors and reports heard in recent days on Arafat’s condition, Shaheed said that there are always those who want to show that they are in the know, and are insiders. She said that no one had information aside from that which the PA provided. Shaheed said that PA officials were trying to relay all of the details provided by the physicians.
If you use Nabil Shaath’s admission that Arafat has been in a coma for a week, this clearly refutes other stories that the PA officials have released on and off the record that he was alert, awake, aware, responsive, not in a coma, getting better, etc.
It also appears to refute the story by Jacques Chirac that he visited Arafat and Arafat looked at him and smiled.
UPDATE:
Nabil Sha`ath says that Arafat has suffered liver and kidney failure. No denials yet.
UPDATE:
More: Nabil Sha`ath says Arafat`s brain functioning only partially, all organs except heart and lungs have failed.
They may still be gunning for a Friday burial to coincide with heavy Friday/Ramadan turnout for a Jerusalem gambit.
Though the Palestinians admit that they’ve been telling a few porkies about his condition for a week. From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :
Palestinian officials have confirmed their ailing leader, Yasser Arafat, has suffered a brain haemorrhage and has been in a coma for nearly a week.The brain haemorrhage has worsened the Palestinian’s fragile condition and he is now said to be in a deeper coma than before.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha’ath, who was part of a delegation which visited the 75-year-old leader in a Paris hospital, says any speculation about Mr Arafat’s death and burial is premature and insensitive.
“Again, to us, it’s indecent to discuss somebody’s burial when he is very much alive,” Mr Sha’ath said. “You pray for his recovery.”
At a press conference in Ramallah, Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erakat said Mr Arafat had suffered a severe brain haemorrhage.
“All efforts are being made by our friends the French doctors to relieve this haemorrhaging,” Mr Erakat said.
Mr Sha’ath says Mr Arafat’s wife, Suha, welcomed the high-level Palestinian delegation despite earlier accusing them of coming to bury her husband alive.
He dismissed conspiracy theories that Mr Arafat had been poisoned and said talk of euthanasia was not being considered.
Of course, it’s all the fault of the Jews anyway. From The Australian :
In announcing Mr Arafat’s deteriorating condition in Paris, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said confinement to the dank Muqata, where Mr Arafat lived in a room with a tiny window, may have contributed to his health problems.
Supremely ironic that that’s where they’re planning to bury him!
HAARETZ: PA plans Muqata burial for Arafat
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha’ath put an end Tuesday to nearly two weeks of speculation by declaring Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat’s life in a Paris hospital was “now in the hands of God and his doctors.”A late-night report by Itim quoted senior Palestinian sources as saying that PLO Secretary General Mahmoud Abbas - the most senior Palestinian politician after Arafat - would announce in Ramallah Wednesday morning that Arafat had died.
According to the report, Arafat was already dead as of Tuesday night, but the Palestinian leadership would make the official announcement only after Abbas returned to Ramallah from Paris, via Amman, overnight.
Any denials yet?
UPDATE:
Suha’s holding out for more bling-bling. And the actual biological father of her daughter is pulling the strings.
AL-JAZEERA: Conflicting reports about Arafat’s condition
Arafat has died in a military hospital on the outskirts of the French capital Paris, a member of his cabinet told AFP on Tuesday.However Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath insisted that Arafat was still alive although his coma had deepened.
“For sure he is dead,” said the minister who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity. “It’s a question of how and when to announce it. It (an announcement) will be most likely made tonight (Tuesday).”
Would AFP and Al-Jazeera ever lie to you?
UPDATE:
HAARETZ: Palestinian officials: Arafat to be buried in Ramallah
Palestinian officials Taib Abdel Rahim and Saeb Erekat, speaking in a press conference Tuesday evening in Ramallah, announced that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat will be buried in his Muqata headquarters in the West Bank city.
Palestinians are reportedly planning to make part of the Muqata into a mausoleum.The announcement marks the first time that Palestinian officials have publicly discussed Arafat’s burial, and appears to indicate that the critically ill Palestinian leader will be taken off life support shortly.
Israeli security and government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, had previously said Ramallah was not an option for burial. Israel fears a funeral in Ramallah could present a security risk because of its close proximity to Jerusalem and due to the many army-manned roadblocks surrounding the town.
It also may be a gambit to build up a crowd to be used as human shields to carry him to Jerusalem.
Just in case the Humor Police strike, Fark is having fun with the conflicting denials of rumors of reports.
UPDATE:
It’s now…
Arafat aide Tayeb Abdel Rahim says PA leader suffering from brain hemorrhage.
UPDATE
Arafat is down to three organs, apparently:
Yasser Arafat’s brain, heart and lungs still function and he is alive, Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath says.
But his spleen… the Spleen of the Revolution and Resistance… his spleen is no more!
Shaath continues:
However:
Speaking to reporters in Paris, where he and other top Palestinian officials arrived Monday night to visit the ailing Arafat, Sha’ath said that the Palestinian leader’s organs were still functioning, and ruled out any chance of “euthanasia.”He also dismissed a statement from Palestinian officials in the West Bank that arrangement were underway to bury Arafat at his headquarters in Ramallah, saying it is indecent to discuss the burial ahead of Arafat’s death.
And a disturbing image you might not want to ponder:
“He died after bleeding in the brain began last night. His bodyguards started hugging and kissing and telling each other to be strong,” this source said.
Ewwww. And from “The Mole” Tibi:
Arafat’s former advisor, MK Ahmed Tibi, said Tuesday evening that his death would come within a matter of hours, Israel Radio reported.
SIDE NOTE:
Reports are that Sharon is likely not to oppose a Ramallah burial for Arafat.
UPDATE:
Since he was born there…
Palestinian official: Egypt offering to host funeral service for Yasser Arafat in Cairo.
Which avoids any Arab or Muslim leaders the dignity of recognizing Israeli authority over Israeli territory, let alone Israel.
More from the Ministry of Denial.
HAARETZ: French hospital treating Arafat denies reports of his death
The French military hospital treating Yasser Arafat and senior Palestinian Authority officials denied Tuesday afternoon an earlier unconfirmed report by a Palestinian source close to the PA chairman that he had died.
All we know through official means at this point is that Arafat is not undead. There is no need to equip yourself with garlic, wooden stakes, crosses, torches, or Ghostbuster-style proton packs at this point.
UPDATE:
I am denying Michele’s earlier report. I am also unofficially denying that she is officially denying my off-the-record denial of her report.
Also, this post is currently in a difficult condition. It has not been deleted.
UPDATE 2
In addition to a Haram Al-Sharif gambit and plans for a Gaza burial, now:
Palestinians said to be planning to bury Arafat in Ramallah, make part of his Muqata compound into mausoleum.
UPDATE 3
JERUSALEM POST: Top Islamic cleric heading to Paris:
PA may send senior Islamic cleric to Paris to determine whether Arafat`s life-support may be disconnected.
Two words: Hotblack Desiato.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is dead, senior Palestinian political sources said on Tuesday.The information from sources close to Arafat could not immediately be confirmed.
“He is dead,” a senior political source close to Arafat told Reuters in Paris, where the 75-year-old leader has been lying in a coma at a French military hospital.
Asked to confirm Arafat’s death, another official close to the president said: “Yes, he is dead. There will be an announcement soon.”
Hang on a few minutes for the next conflicting report.
Update: That didn’t take long. Drudge’s screaming siren reports that Arafat lives again!
HAARETZ: PA leaders updated on Arafat amid reports of ‘deeper coma’
Palestinian leaders visiting the French capital met Tuesday with Yasser Arafat’s doctors for a full update on the condition of the critically ill Palestinian Authority chairman.
“They spent about one hour with the French doctors and heard a detailed report on his medical condition,” said a Palestinian source.“He is not dead, but we are counting the hours,” he added.
UPDATE:
The Drudge Report Siren is on. “Arafat Said Dead.”
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is dead, senior Palestinian political sources said on Tuesday.The information from sources close to Arafat could not immediately be confirmed.
“He is dead,” one of the sources close to Arafat said in Paris, where Arafat has been lying in a coma at a French hospital. Officials in the West Bank said they had not been informed that Arafat was dead.
I’ve known this since Thursday.
HAARETZ: Palestinian sources: Arafat is dead; no official confirmation
Palestinian sources said Tuesday afternoon that Yasser Arafat was dead, although it could not be officially confirmed.“He is dead,” one of the sources close to Arafat said in
Paris, where Arafat has been lying in a coma at a French
hospital. Officials in the West Bank said they had not been informed that the Palestinian leader had died.
UPDATE:
From the Ministry of Denial:
Senior Palestinian official, Nasser al-Kidwa, denies reports that Arafat is dead, but says `situation is very difficult`
and
Senior Palestinian official says after visit to Paris hospital that Yasser Arafat is still alive
JERUSALEM POST: W. Bank UNRWA employees strike, demand pay rises
The United Nations’ Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) is refusing to give into salary demands of its employees in the West Bank, who are striking since October 11.The strike of the agency’s 4,000 employees in the West Bank has closed down schools and clinics and is felt mostly in the refugee camps, run by UNRWA. The agency’s workers in the Gaza Strip have not joined the strike.
“We’ve told them that we’ve conducted a salary survey, which shows that in comparison [to the rest of the West Bank] they receive 25-30 percent more,” UNRWA spokesperson Paul McCann told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
“People must understand that our agency lives on donations. We are supported solely by donor countries,” McCann said.
HAARETZ: Palestinian leaders head to Paris to announce Arafat’s death
Former Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), current Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) and Foreign Minister Nabil Sha’ath were due to leave for Paris on Sunday night, where they are expected to announce the death of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. Israeli sources believe the Palestinian leadership has accepted Arafat’s death.Sources in the defense establishment believe Tuesday will be the day on which the Palestinians will ask to disconnect Arafat from life support and announce his death.
Tuesday night marks Lailat al-Kader, the night Muslims believe God revealed the Koran to the prophet Mohammed. The death of the Palestinian leader on that day will, therefore, be symbolic.
UPDATE:
Reuters’ Wafa Amr in serious denial and spin mode.
UPDATE 2:
Now Suha’s shrieking in the headlines:
Yasser Arafat’s wife says her husband is alive and claims Palestinian officials are traveling to Paris to “bury him alive.”
Somebody give her Coretta Scott King and Yoko Ono’s cell phone numbers.
UPDATE 3:
Trip cancelled. Sufa, having French citizenship, has the PA by the short hairs.
UPDATE 4:
Trip uncancelled and denial of the original cancellation.
“There is no change of plan. The delegation is going to Paris,” said Dahlan.
UPDATE 5:
Reuters: Palestinian leaders en route to Paris to visit Arafat will meet with Chirac, other senior French officials.
UPDATE 6:
REUTERS: Palestinian leaders land at Paris` Le Bourget airport; Qureia, Abbas expected to see ailing Yasser Arafat on Tuesday
Palestinian leaders rushed to Paris on Monday to check on the critically ill Yasser Arafat, but hospital officials said visiting rights were restricted — setting the stage for a dramatic showdown between the delegation and Arafat’s wife.
Yasser is in a French military hospital, giving their commander-in-chief full authority to force access.
Sufa was granted French citizenship during her extended shopping spree in Paris, giving her full rights to control access to her husband.
You could say that Arafat is between Chirac and a Hard Place.
REUTERS: Arafat Has Liver Failure, Palestinian Official Says
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has liver failure and his condition is not improving at the French military hospital where he is being treated, a Palestinian official said on Sunday.The official, who declined to be named, said Palestinian officials were considering moving Arafat to hospital in Cairo, from where he could be flown home more quickly if he died.
But he added that any decision to move him could be taken only by the Palestinian leadership.
“He has liver failure. His condition is not improving,” said the official.
(As with every report, it’s already been denied.)
UPDATE:
Two more headlines from the Haaretz ticker:
19:31 Qureia`s bureau denies reports that Palestinian PM, former PM Abbas and FM Nabil Sha`ath to travel to Paris
19:20 Palestinian officials say PM Ahmed Qureia, former PM Abbas to travel to Paris Monday to visit Arafat
They could have the trouble and just deny that they are reporting anything.
UPDATE:
A denial of the denial of the denial:
19:58 French Foreign Ministry confirms Abbas and Shaath coming to Paris to see Arafat on Monday (Reuters)
Arafat’s No. 2 Is Set to Assume Leadership
Mahmoud Abbas wears a business suit, not a military uniform and kaffiyeh. He is a former elementary school teacher - studious, gracious, pragmatic and opposed to terrorism. He is also tough enough to have been Yasir Arafat’s No. 2 for many years in the Palestine Liberation Organization, now becoming his probable successor.
JERUSALEM POST: Kaddoumi - a possible Arafat successor
Palestinian hardliner Farouk Kaddoumi has been mentioned in Palestinian circles in the past 24 hours as a possible successor to ailing leader Yasser Arafat.Kaddoumi, foreign minister of the Palestine Liberation Organization, who resides in Tunis, is a major political rival of Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas - who also aspire to lead the Palestinians after Arafat’s demise.
Earlier this week, Kaddoumi issued a warning “to ambitious Palestinian officials, who are jockeying for power,” which was understood as being directed at Qurei and Abbas.
JERUSALEM POST: Palestinian sources: Planning underway for Arafat’s funeral
The Jerusalem Post was contacted by a source close to Arafat on Friday afternoon claiming that the Chairman had been dead since Thursday afternoon, but the newspaper has been unable to find any official confirmation of this.This source, in common with reports carried on some TV stations, claimed that official confirmation of Arafat’s death was being delayed until arrangements for his funeral were finalized.
There have been reports that PA officials are in contact with Israeli officials over the location and logistics of a funeral. However, Assi Shariv, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office, said no one has contacted Israel about where Arafat will be buried. “As far as Jerusalem goes, Sharon meant that Arafat will not be buried within the ‘municipal boundaries’,” Shariv said.
Some parts of Abu Dis do fall in the municipal boundaries of the capital, and some parts do not. “Certainly he is clinically dead,” Shariv told The Jerusalem Post.
Expectations are that Arafat will be buried in the Gaza Strip although Jordan and Egypt have reportedly offered to let him be buried in their countries. Arafat’s sister is buried in Gaza. Palestinian officials also denied Friday that Arafat had asked to be buried on the Temple Mount or left any will to that effect.
Israel will permit Arafat to be buried in the Gaza Strip, but keep him out of Jerusalem, a city “where Jewish kings are buried and not Arab terrorists,” Justice Minister Yosef (Tommy) Lapid said Friday. Lapid reiterated Friday that Jerusalem is off-limits. “They (the Palestinians) will choose where to bury him, but he will not be buried in Jerusalem because Jerusalem is the city where Jewish kings are buried and not Arab terrorists,” he told Associated Press Television News.
On the other hand…
Arafat Wants to Be Buried in Jerusalem
The top Palestinian Islamic cleric said Friday it was Yasser Arafat’s wish to be buried in Jerusalem, increasing pressure on Israel, which has sharply refused to allow the Palestinian leader to be laid to rest in the city if he dies.The Mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, said Arafat “willed to be buried in Jerusalem and from a religious perspective, we must and need to honor his will.”
Analysis: Political bluster. Most hard-line Islamic religious authorities consider Arafat a near-infidel for marrying a Christian convert, thus unworthy of burial at Haram Al-Sharif. Also, Sabri is an Arafat political appointee.
HAARETZ: PA official: Arafat in critical state ‘between life and death’
“[Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser] Arafat is unconscious and has undergone a general systems collapse,” a high-level Palestinian official told Haaretz on Thursday night. “He is being aided by respiratory machines and his condition appears irreversible, but reports of his death are not true.”
According to several reports from French and international media outlets, Yasser Arafat’s condition is one of clinical death.Sources in Ramallah said Friday that Arafat’s wife, Suha, has the power to decide when to disconnect her husband from life support in the Percy Military Training Hospital in Clamart, outside Paris. Israel Radio quoted Palestinian sources as saying that Suha Arafat is deciding on all hospital matters regarding her husband.
“Arafat is in a critical state between life and death,” the Palestinian envoy to Paris said on Friday morning amid growing speculations on a post-Arafat Palestinian Authority.
“I assure you that he is not brain dead,” she said. “He is in a coma. We are not sure what type. But it is a reversible coma,” Leila Shahid, the permanent Palestinian envoy to Paris, told French RTL radio.
Shahid ruled out the possibility of Arafat resigning as president of the Palestinian Authority.
“There is no reason. Why resign? … Palestinian institutions provide for a vice-president for all the posts held by Yasser Arafat, and the vice-presidents will take over if need be.”
UPDATE:
Sky News says “Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat`s condition to be announced shortly”
Conflicting reports…
PA Chairman said comatose; hospital denies Arafat is dead
A French military hospital spokesman said on Thursday that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat’s medical state was complex, and that the leader was alive.
Earlier on Thursday, French officials and a French radio station, Radio Monte Carlo, reported the Palestinian leader’s death.The reports were denied by PA officials, including former prime minsiter Ahmed Qureia and senior adviser Mohammed Rashid.
My source says that the hospital is a mess, with the PLO Arabs shouting at the French that they are Jews and murderers. I cannot confirm that at this time.
CNN, Al-Jazeerah, AFP, Reuters…
AP: French Doctors Say Arafat’s Alive
“Mr. Arafat is not dead,” he said, concluding the brief statement.“This statement has been drafted out of respect for the discretion demanded by his wife,” he said.
Among other sources: THIS IS LONDON: Officials say Arafat still alive.
For more on the “complex” situation, check French military law and ponder the timing of Chirac’s visit.
(more to come)
In the Haaretz news ticker, the following enigmatic headline has appeared:
Arafat`s health has seriously deteriorated
HAARETZ: Arafat in intensive care due to sudden deterioration in health
The health of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat seriously deteriorated Wednesday night.He was placed in an intensive-care unit at the French military hospital where he is being treated.
Arafat was flown to France for treatment last Friday after his health worsened.
The sudden deterioration came a few hours after Leila Shahid, the Palestinians’ permanent envoy to Paris, reiterated that doctors carrying out tests on Arafat in the suburb of Clamart, southwest of Paris, had ruled out leukemia or any other form of cancer and said his health was improving.
“We are happy that his health is getting better.” she said. “Now we have to continue the examinations to find the reason for his general fatigue and the weakness of his blood. But I think we are going in the right direction.”
Also:
ISA: Arafat to convalesce in Tunisia
Ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will convalesce in Tunisia after undergoing medical treatment in France, Palestinian foreign minister Farouk Kaddoumi said on Wednesday.“After undergoing treatment he will need time to rest,” Kaddoumi said before leaving for Paris in the company of other Palestinian leaders.
“He will be here in Tunis, soon, God willing.”
Follow the money…
ARAB NEWS: Arafat Aides Resume Talks With Israel, Fight Over His Fortune
As Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat waited for results of tests conducted on him by French doctors, his senior aides have resumed contact with Israel to revive the US-backed road map for peace.Senior Palestinian and Israeli leaders held separate meetings yesterday to plan a path forward in Arafat’s absence. Palestinian officials have been convening a series of top meetings in recent days to show that their institutions continue to function, while Israeli officials scrambled to plan for the possibility that the West Bank and Gaza could erupt into chaos if Arafat dies.
At the same time sources close to the Palestinian leadership said a bitter fight had broken over who should control the ailing leader’s fortune estimated to be between $4.2 billion and $6.5 billion.
JERUSALEM POST: IDF Intelligence: Arafat is ‘very sick’
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is “very sick,” a senior IDF intelligence branch officer said Monday. Military intelligence believes he has a type of cancer not yet identified, or a virus.He said that IDF intelligence has “a lot of details on his illness” but not enough to reach a diagnosis like Arafat’s doctors in France.
He said that despite the impression the Palestinian are trying to give, they themselves are unsure of Arafat’s condition.
An ailing Yasser Arafat entered a fourth day of emergency treatment Monday at a French military hospital specializing in blood disorders, but the cause of his precipitous decline in health remained unexplained.
Palestinian officials say their leader’s condition has improved markedly since he was rushed from his battered Ramallah headquarters in the West Bank to Paris on Friday - and that he does not suffer from leukemia or cancer. But that has not been publicly confirmed by French physicians involved in his treatment.
Sources are still claiming that he’s improving.
REUTERS: PLO Meet for First Time in Decades Without Arafat
Leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization met Saturday for the first time in decades without President Yasser Arafat.The executive committee meeting was held in Arafat’s battered headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, a day after he left for urgent medical treatment in Paris.
Arafat’s departure Friday was the first time he had left the Ramallah compound in 2-1/2 years. His chair was left empty at the meeting.
Arafat was to undergo a battery of medical tests at a French military hospital outside Paris for doctors to determine whether he was suffering from leukemia or another blood disorder.
A senior Palestinian official said Arafat’s condition was serious, but doctors did not believe he was about to die.
A Palestinian radio report said he might be able to return to the West Bank in about four weeks.
Other reports state that if Arafat’s condition were terminal, he would ask to return to the West Bank.
UPDATE:
CNN is reporting that he likely has leukemia, and that some Palestinian sources say that his “era as a leader are over.”
UPDATE:
Haaretz reports that a palestinian spokeswoman is saying the doctors have determined he doesn’t have leukemia.
JERUSALEM POST: Powell urges Arafat to cede control of PA
Secretary of State Colin Powell refused to speculate on Yasser Arafat’s health Friday but urged the Palestinian leader to yield control of security in Palestinian-run areas to a prime minister as a way of furthering peace.It would give Israel a partner for negotiations, Powell said in an interview with Egyptian Television and Nile News. Like Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the Bush administration refuses to deal with Arafat, the longtime symbol of the Palestinian movement.
US policy, Powell said, is that “we believe the Palestinian people would be better off with an empowered prime minister who has political authority and who has control of the security forces.”
HAARETZ: Yasser Arafat in serious but stable condition
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is expected to be transferred from his Muqata headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah to a hospital in the city Thursday afternoon, as Palestinian sources said he continued to be in serious but stable condition.Israeli media said Palestinian officials were also considering moving him to hospitals abroad, such as in Jordan or Egypt. Israel has given its permission for Arafat to be transferred to any hospital in the world.
Palestinian sources said Arafat’s health condition had deteriorated sharply Wednesday night, when Palestinian officials from Arafat’s office had told Israeli security officials Wednesday that Arafat was fighting for his life.
On Thursday morning, Arafat aides said the chairman sent a message to his people that his condition was good and there was no reason to be worried, Army Radio reported. However, no pictures or recordings of Arafat have been released.
UPDATE:
If he leaves for Jordan for treatment, Israel will allow him to return to the West Bank.
UPDATE:
The Waqf (Islamic Temple Mount Occupation Authority) may want Arafat buried at Al-Aqsa. some Knesset ministers think otherwise:
Right-wing extremist Baruch Marzel on Thursday called on all Jews to use their bodies to block a potential funeral procession of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to the Temple Mount.Marzel said Jews should “prevent the mass murderer with the blood of thousands of Jews on his hands to be buried on the Mount.”
According to the various UNSC resolutions, placing Arafat on the Temple Mount could be considered changing “a fact on the ground” as Israel has been accused of doing withthe Separation Barrier.
Also, the IDF has worked up a day-after plan.
UPDATE:
Some reports say he’s going to Jordan, others say he’s going to… Paris.
UPDATE:
AP: Arafat to Be Moved to Hospital Abroad
Palestinian officials prepared to move the ailing Yasser Arafat out of his sandbagged headquarters to a hospital abroad Thursday as associates described an Palestinian leader who was too weak to stand, appeared confused and spent most of the day sleeping.Doctors were holding final consultations Thursday on where to take the 75-year-old Arafat, with Paris and the Jordanian capital, Amman, mentioned as possible destinations, Palestinian officials said.
One Palestinian official said earlier he expected Arafat to be flown by helicopter to Amman.
CONFIRMED: Arafat will be heading to Paris.
But a close Arafat associate said the Palestinian leader spent most of the day sleeping. When he awoke, he was moved into a wheelchair because he was very weak and could not stand up, the associate said. At times, Arafat appeared confused, not recognizing some of his visitors, he added.Arafat has been unable to hold down food, and also suffers from diarrhea, the associate said on condition of anonymity.
UPDATE:
Two headlines from the rightist Maariv: Arafat participates in morning prayers (no photographs) and, what may be a bombshell, Abu Mazen to succeed Arafat
Former PA premier Abu Mazen will temporarily take over Arafat’s authority while he is incapacitated, and will succeed him in the event that he does not recover from his current ailments.Abu Ala, who replaced him as premier has agreed to support him. The two mew agreed that if necessary the Palestinian Legislative council will meet in emergency session in which all presidential authority will be passed to Abu Mazen.
UPDATE:
AFP is reporting that the condition may be due to a fatal blood disorder.
UPDATE:
CNN is reporting that Arafat refuses to go to Paris. Maybe Chirac’s well-wishes sounded forced or something?
UPDATE:
He was just being fussy. France is sending a plane for him. But there are currently no guarantees that the countless Al-Aqsa and Fateh holing up with him will be spared.
UPDATE:
Officials at the place where Yasser was welcomed with a gun strapped to his side are worried.
UPDATE:
Another medical report: low platelet count… but it’s not leukemia.
UPDATE:
PA spokesperson has said that Arafat will not relinquish any powers, will continue to rule from Paris when he arrives.
HAARETZ: Doctors in Ramallah fighting to save Arafat’s life
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat’s health has deteriorated and he is in critical condition, Palestinian sources said on Wednesday night. The sources went on to say that a team of doctors in his Ramallah headquarters were fighting for his life. According to some reports, the PA chairman regained consciousness, though he was suffering from hallucinations.
UPDATE:
AP is reporting that a three-man committee has been appointed to temporarily rule in Arafat’s place. (PM Ahmed Queri, Former-PM Mahmoud Abbas, Salim Zaanoun)
UPDATE:
From Haaretz:
One of the men in question told Reuters that he had heard nothing of any decree.
UPDATE:
Reuters says that Arafat spokesman Nabil Abu-Rudeineh denies the 3-man team story. Speculation by Israeli officials over whether Arafat has had a severe stroke.
UPDATE:
The Tunisians and Jordanians are about to get some Egyptian middle-reliever emergency medical staff within a few hours.
SIDE NOTE:
Haaretz on the lack of a successor to Arafat, and why.
UPDATE:
Saeb Erekat is saying that Arafat has improved and his condition is stable.
UPDATE:
Jerusalem Post quotes Security Advisor Jibril Rajoub as saying reports are “blatant exaggerations, which only reflect our enemies’ bad wishes.”
UPDATE:
The Jerusalem Post gets past the spokespeople and asks Arafat’s cardiologist and physician:
Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, a cardiologist who visited PA Chairman Yasser Arafat Wednesday night, told the Jerusalem Post that Arafat is currently conscious and doctors are tying to determine whether he can fulfill his duties.“He is seriously sick and has a severe illness but he is being cared for by a good medical team. His main problem is in the gastro intestinal tract,” Barghouti said.
Barghouti, head of the Palestinian Peace Initiative and one of the harshest critics of the PA chairman, added that the problem is making Arafat unable to eat and digest.
Asked why Arafat was not being moved to a hospital, Barghouti said, “there is no difference, he is receiving adequate medical attention here with very good doctors.”
JERUSALEM POST: Suha Arafat to visit her husband Thursday
Suha Arafat, Yasser Arafat’s wife will be allowed to visit her husband on Thursday.Shaul Mofaz has allowed Mrs. Arafat’s entry into Ramallah, Israel Radio reported.
Mrs. Arafat, who lives in Paris, made the request directly to the Israeli Ministry of Defense on Wednesday night.
The request was granted.
According to some reports, Suha’s child is not Arafat’s.
HAARETZ: Israel allows Arafat to leave Muqata for medical checkup
Israel decided Monday to allow Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to leave his Muqata headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah so he can get a medical checkup. This would be the first time in two years that Arafat will be leaving the compound.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz made the decision in response to a request to allow Arafat to go for medical examinations in the Ramallah hospital.It is unclear when exactly Arafat will be going to the hospital.
In the last few weeks, Arafat’s medical condition has worsened and he has been examined by doctors from Egypt and Tunisia.
HAARETZ: Palestinian parliament gives Qureia two-week reprieve
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Quriea has won a two-week reprieve before he has to defend his record in front of lawmakers threatening a no-confidence vote, officials said on Monday.
Quriea had been summoned to present a report to parliament on Oct. 20 after accusations that his government, appointed by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, had failed to act on widespread demands for reform.A spokesman for the Palestinian Legislative Council said Quriea requested a two-week delay and this had been approved by parliament.
Quriea’s office said the delay would allow time to “prepare a comprehensive report on the performance of the cabinet.”
They must be busy with Ramadan prayers. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
JERUSALEM POST: Arafat approves corruption probe in PA embassies
Kaddoumi ordered PLO officials Jum’ah Naji and Ahmed Jarrar to head to Europe in order to question a PA ambassador suspected of embezzlement and abuse of power.Naji is a senior official with the PLO political department, while Najjar serves as the director of Arafat’s office in the Gaza Strip.
The official told the Gulf-based Al-Bayan newspaper that the decision to launch an investigation against PA ambassadors and embassy staff followed complaints regarding embezzlement of public funds and corruption.
Another official said the PA suspected that some of the ambassadors and embassy workers had been recruited by European and Arab intelligence services to collect information about the PA leadership.
He said some of the ambassadors were running the embassies as private enterprises and exploiting their diplomatic immunity for criminal activities. In one case, a PA ambassador was caught driving a stolen car.
HAARETZ: Palestinian UNRWA workers go on strike in West Bank
Palestinians working for the UN agency responsible for caring for Palestinian refugees went on strike Monday, cutting off medical and aid services to thousands of Palestinians across the West Bank, UN officials said.Some 5,000 workers at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the West Bank halted their work at 21 refugee camps until they receive a pay raise and additional social benefits, said UNRWA spokesman Sami Mushashfra.
“This paralyzes all our services, our clinics, maternity clinics, schools and food distribution,” Mushashfra said.
“We will have serious problems if this is not solved soon,” said Ahmed Dukan, the head of the Balata refugee camp council, adding that no garbage was being collected, which could spread disease in the camp.
HAARETZ: Arafat says he will step down once Palestinian state is created
Comparing himself to South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat said in an interview published Tuesday that he will step down from office after he has ruled an independent Palestinian state.Arafat, in the interview with the London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, said he wouldn’t impose himself as a candidate for re-election, but the Palestinian leader, elected in 1996, still holds all the keys to decision-making in his territories.
He compared himself to Mandela, 86, who became South Africa’s first black president in 1994 and stepped down five years later to assume the role of an elder statesman. Mandela shared a Peace Nobel Prize with F.W. de Klerk in 1993, a year before Arafat shared the same prize with late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.
“I am ready to be Nelson Mandela,” Arafat said in an apparent reference to Mandela’s withdrawal from political office. “I agree, but (only) after the Palestinian state is established and I am its president. Then I leave it to others.”
REUTERS: Palestinian PM Drops Resignation in Deal with Arafat
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie retracted his resignation on Tuesday after Yasser Arafat granted him some powers to carry out reforms, easing a paralyzing leadership crisis.Qurie’s chief of staff said he had won effective control over parts of a security apparatus whose internal corruption and lawlessness are seen by U.S.-led mediators as a big obstacle to reviving peace talks between Palestinians and Israel.
But Arafat, an ex-guerrilla leader turned president, has not honored similar reform promises made in the past under international pressure and the initial U.S. reaction to Tuesday’s announcement was skeptical.
Arafat acted after an unprecedented explosion of public unrest over inaction on demands for reforms, including elections, to weed out an entrenched old elite around Arafat and make Palestinian institutions more democratic and accountable.
The strife, which has raised fear of a descent into anarchy, underlined a power struggle brewing in Gaza in anticipation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw settlers and troops from the occupied territory by the end of next year.
“The president rejected my resignation and I will (now) comply,” Qurie, who tendered his resignation 10 days ago, told reporters. “I am satisfied that President Arafat is serious this time, that it is not just words but that this time there will be action.”
(And like a boomerang, Abu Merang is back in his master’s hand.)
MAARIV: Report: Germany mulling cutting aid to PA
Amidst corruption allegations and a leadership crisis, German politicians are calling for measures to be taken against the government of Yasser Arafat, including a freezing of European Union aid.The foreign policy spokesman for the ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD), Gert Weisskirchen, has told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper that EU foreign ministers should stop financial aid payments to the Palestinian Authority if the power fight in the government gets any worse. “This is an instrument with which we can support the constructive powers in Palestine,” Weisskirchen argued.
Conservatives have also called for more controls on financial aid payments to the Palestinians. Armin Laschet, a member of the European Parliament representing the Christian Democratic Union, told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper that the EU has committed “grave errors” in its funding of President Arafat.
Between 2000 and 2003, the EU has wired €10 million a month to the Palestinian Authority without proper controls, he said. Laschet, who is co-chair of the parliamentary committee responsible for oversight of the EU’s Palestinian aid, also alleged that the Palestinians had been using the funds illegally.
Allegations that Arafat misappropriated international funds emerged earlier this week when German public broadcaster ARD ran a report with documents showing that Arafat wired $5.1 million in September 2001 to a personal account at the Arab Bank in Cairo.
REUTERS: Palestinian MPs Demand Arafat Move on Reform
The Palestinian parliament Wednesday urged President Yasser Arafat to accept his prime minister’s resignation and appoint a government empowered to carry out reforms and halt a descent into anarchy.Unprecedented unrest against a Palestinian Authority widely seen as corrupt, resistant to reform and out of touch spurred Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie to resign, touching off a leadership crisis that some fear could turn into civil war.
Lawmakers at a crisis session voted 43-4 for a resolution calling on Arafat to accept Qurie’s resignation, which would dissolve his cabinet, and appoint a government “capable of carrying out its responsibilities” — a veiled demand to endow it with powers to impose law and order.
Qurie, who quit Saturday only to be told by Arafat to stay in office, is frustrated with his lack of power to make public institutions, above all a muddle of security agencies riven by feuding and cronyism, more democratic and accountable.
International mediators regard such reforms as critical to reducing violence in the Palestinian conflict with Israel and salvaging a “road map” peace plan promising Palestinians a state in Israeli-occupied territories.
JERUSALEM POST: UNRWA removes one-third of staff from Gaza
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) headquarters in Gaza City decided on Tuesday to remove one-third of its staff members from the Gaza Strip to Jerusalem.Chief public information officer, Paul McCann told The Jerusalem Post, “we are temporarily relocating only 20 out of 60 staff members to Jerusalem in order to minimize crossing from Gaza.”
McCann stated that the decision to relocate was a result of the increased tension between the IDF and Palestinian gunmen in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun, near the Erez crossing which UNRWA staff use frequently to travel back and forth from Gaza to Jerusalem.
REUTERS: Palestinians Deny Barring Critical UN Diplomat
A Palestinian diplomat denied on Wednesday the top U.N. envoy to the Middle East had been barred from Palestinian territory after he criticized President Yasser Arafat.“No actions will be taken to prevent Mr. (Terje Roed-) Larsen from entering the Palestinian territory,” Palestinian U.N. observer Nasser al-Kidwa said.
“We are not rescinding anything because we have not decided anything,” he told reporters at U.N. headquarters. “We haven’t taken any decision yet, pending a thorough discussion with the (U.N.) secretary-general.”
Huh?
JERUSALEM POST: Arafat: UN envoy Larsen not welcome in Ramallah
The United Nations’ top envoy to the Middle East is no longer welcome in the Palestinian territories following his harsh criticism of the Palestinian Authority and its Chairman Yasser Arafat, an adviser to the PA chairman said Wednesday.The comments by Nabil Abu Rdeneh, Arafat’s top adviser, reflected a deepening rift between the Palestinian leadership and Terje Roed-Larsen, the top UN official in the region.
“We have demanded that (UN Secretary-General) Kofi Annan inquire about (Roed)-Larsen’s actions. The Palestinian government probably will act on the basis that (Roed)-Larsen is unwanted in the Palestinian territories,” Abu Rdeneh said.
“(Roed)-Larsen himself is useless and is not welcomed in the Palestinian territories,” he added.
BY THE WAY:
LGF fans might enjoy this one… Yahoo News photo of Roed-Larsen with a red binder.
Did Roed-Larsen steal Arafat’s Horrible Red Binder?
An explosion Saturday in a car near Gaza City killed three Palestinians, according to a Palestinian hospital official.The cause of the blast in al-Zahra was not immediately known. Al-Zahra is on the outskirts of Gaza City not far from the Jewish settlement of Netzarim.
The Israeli army said it had no information.
Israeli tanks and helicopters were in the general area, but Palestinian residents reached by The Associated Press said they did not see anyone firing at the car.
No additional information is currently available.
REUTERS/HAARETZ: Quartet tells Palestinians to carry out reforms or lose aid
Envoys tell PM Qureia they are ‘sick and tired’ of Palestinian failure to carry out reforms; diplomat says Arafat ‘has done nothing.’
The quartet of Middle East mediators are “sick and tired” of Palestinians failing to carry out reforms and told them on Wednesday to act soon or risk losing international support and aid, diplomats said.In another sign of growing pressure for change on besieged Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, results from grassroots elections for his Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip showed reformers sweeping the field, Fatah officials said.
Sapped by years of corruption and disorder as well as Israeli raids, the PA needs foreign help to fill a power vacuum when Israel quits the Gaza Strip next year or if it hopes to revive peace talks with the Jewish state.
But envoys from the United States, United Nations and European Union and Russia told Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia that the world had run out of patience with Arafat’s “empty promises” of reform.
“If security reforms are not done, there will be no (more) international support and no funding from the international community,” a senior diplomat close to the talks in the West Bank city of Ramallah told Reuters.
Winds of Change.NET’s weekly democracy briefings present a survey each week of the most important trends and events in democratization around the globe. Today’s weekly Democracy Briefing is brought to you by Patrick Belton, co-editor of OxBlog and president of the Nathan Hale Foreign Policy Society.
TOP TOPICS
Other Topics Today Include: Diplomats boycott Burmese ‘democracy’ conference; Kuwait announces it will allow women to vote; Malawi to elect a new president and parliament on Thursday; US warns Ukraine to hold fair elections later this year; UK and South Africa discuss promoting democracy in Zimbabwe; and Surprise developments in India - the world’s largest democracy.
HA‘ARETZ: Top Palestinian official: U.S. commitments endanger future of region
U.S. President George W. Bush’s commitments to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday endanger the future of the entire region, a senior Palestinian official said.“Bush and Sharon are trying to protect each others’ political future but are endangering the political future of Israel, the Palestinians and the whole region,” Yasser Abed Rabbo said Wednesday evening.
(The usual threats, since the coffin just got nailed shut on Resolution 242.)
HAARETZ: Arafat: U.S. pledges to Israel will be end of peace process
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat said Wednesday that possible U.S. assurances that Israel could keep some key settlement blocs and would not have to absorb Palestinian refugees would signal the end of the peace process.
(Better fill your gas tanks now, folks.)
HAARETZ: 12 held for smuggling arms to Palestinian terror groups
Israeli security forces have uncovered a weapons-smuggling cell comprising of four Israeli Bedouin, seven Egyptians and a Palestinian from the West Bank city of Nablus.The 12 are suspected of smuggling arms from Egypt to terror organizations operating out of the Palestinian Authority-administered areas.
The weapons were smuggled from the Sinai Peninsula into Israel and then to Palestinian parts of the West Bank. Details of the case were released for publication on Tuesday.
Some 140 Kalashnikov rifles, two RPG launchers, six RPGs and a large cache of ammunition were seized. Security forces believe that additional arms did get through to the Palestinian territories.
The 12 were detained by officers from the Shin Bet security services, the anti-terrorism squad and from the police’s southern division. Indictments have already been filed against some of the members of the cell.
HAARETZ: PA rejects U.S. caution against including Hamas in leadership
The Palestinian Authority of Wednesday rejected a warning by the United States administration against inviting Hamas to join a unified leadership group.Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told the Israeil Itim news agency that the U.S. has no authority to intervene in internal Palestinian matters. He added that the Americans should be giving the Palestinians guarantees that if Israel does indeed withdraw from the Gaza Strip, under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan, the pullout will be part of the U.S.-backed road map.
The U.S. said Tuesday it opposes any cooperation with the militant Palestinian organization.
JERUSALEM POST: PLF elects successor to dead leader
The Palestine Liberation Front, the terrorist group once backed by Saddam Hussein, said Saturday that it has elected a new leader to succeed Mohammed Abbas, the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijack ringleader who died in US military custody in Iraq last month.The group issued a statement, which was obtained by The Associated Press in Lebanon, saying its central committee unanimously elected PLF second-in-charge Omar Shibli, also known as Abu Ahmed Halab, to replace Abbas, better known as Abul Abbas.
It gave no further details.
JERUSALEM POST: PA dismayed by summit delay
The Palestinian Authority on Sunday expressed its concern at the decision to postpone the Arab summit meeting in Tunisia, saying the move would have a negative impact on the Palestinian issue.PA officials warned that Israel might exploit the decision to destroy the PA and create new facts on the ground.
The PA cabinet, which held its weekly meeting in Ramallah, said it was “deeply sorrowed” by the failure of Arab foreign ministers to reach an agreement on convening the summit in the Tunisian capital this week.
“This will have a direct impact on Arab solidarity,” said a statement issued by the PA cabinet following the meeting. “The decision to call off the summit will also weaken joint Arab action in the face of current challenges and global political changes.”
(If this bluster were true, then blowing away Yassin to collapse the Arab League Summit and gain a week or two of PA collapse was actually a very good move.)
MAARIV: Palestinian delegation to Arab League to include Jihad and Hamas
The Palestinian government decided on Monday to approve the request of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat to include representatives from all Palestinian factions in its delegation to the Arab League convention. The gathering was supposed to take place this week but was postponed due to disagreements between several Arab states regarding the convention’s content. The PA originally planned to send a delegation consisting of Fatah representatives only.
JERUSALEM POST: Abul Abbas buried in Syria
More than 3,000 mourners gathered in Yarmouk refugee camp Tuesday for the burial of Palestinian militant Abul Abbas, mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro passenger ship.Shops closed and women wept openly as a hearse bearing Abbas’ body, draped in a Palestinian flag, made its way slowly through the narrow streets of the camp, on the outskirts of Damascus, to the Martyrs’ Cemetery.
Abbas, 56, whose given name was Mohammed Abbas, died March 10 in U.S. custody in Iraq, where he was captured last April. U.S. officials said he died of natural causes but his faction, the Palestine Liberation Front, accused the United States of assassinating him.
Israel refused to allow his burial in the West Bank, and his body was flown to Syria earlier Tuesday by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Abbas was born in the Yarmouk camp in 1948.
MAARIV: Hamas to pick Yasin’s successor after mourning period ends
A leading Hamas figure says that Ahmed Yasin’s successor will be picked after the traditional mourning period ends. He added that Yasin’s replacement will be chosen democratically. He refused to provide names of possible candidates and said: “Any talk about a successor could affect the neutrality of elections within the movement”.
(Do you think the Carter Center can get their monitors and observers deployed in such short notice?)
MAARIV: Hezbollah opens fire in north, as “Yasin Brigades”
Israeli military sources reported this (Monday) afternoon that the Lebanese Shi’ite terror group Hexbollah begun shelling IDF outposts on the northern frontier. The fire was concentrated on the Shaba Farms, which Hezbollah claims as Lebanese territory despite UN rulings to the contrary — and it announced the operation was being conducted by “the Ahmad Yasin Brigades.” The timing soon after Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Sheikh Yasin was not the only indication given today of growing Hezbollah involvement in the territories.“Hezbollah pays Palestinian boys NIS 50 for every Molotov cocktail they throw at IDF troops”, The IDF’s Judea and Samaria commander, Brig. Gen. Gadi Eisencott revealed at a conference in Tel-Aviv. According to Eisencott, the Lebanese terror group funds over 60 terror cells and has become a financial powerhouse of Palestinian terrorism.
Eisencott’s words come a week after a 12 year-old Palestinian boy, Abdullah Koran, was caught at an IDF roadblock on the West Bank with an explosive charge hidden in his schoolbag. Following an inquiry, it was revealed that Tanzim-Fatah operatives gave Abdullah NIS 5 for taking a bag they gave him through the roadblock, without telling him explosives were stashed in it.
HA‘ARETZ: Al-Aqsa Brigades apologizes for killing Israeli Arab in Jerusalem
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades on Saturday apologized for killing a young Israeli Arab student in a shooting attack in Jerusalem on Friday evening, saying that he had been mistaken for a “settler.”George Elias Khouri, a 20-year-old student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem was killed in a drive-by shooting as he was jogging in the French Hill area of Jerusalem.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, linked to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, later claimed responsibility for the shooting.
“We will consider him as a martyr like hundreds of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces,” the leader of the militant group said Saturday, adding that they would send a letter of apology to Khouri’s family.
(Since he was a student of Hebrew University and not Al-Quds, shouldn’t Al-Aqsa brand him a “collaborator” like they do with Palestinian Arabs who cooperate with Israelis?)
JERUSALEM POST: Terrorists recruiting more children
Since the outbreak of “Al Aksa intifada” three and a half years ago there has been a growing trend in the use of Palestinian children aged 11 to 17 who are recruited by terrorist organizations to perpetrate attacks in Israel.In addition, terrorist organizations often use children’s toys and backpacks to hide bombs they plan to smuggle to activists elsewhere to be used in attacks.
The most recent incident was the attempt by Fatah Tanzim terrorists in Nablus this week to smuggle a 10-kg. bomb hidden in a bag which they asked 11-year-old Abdullah Quran to carry through the Hawara checkpoint and hand to a woman waiting on the other side. When Quran was stopped by soldiers who asked to inspect the bags he was carrying and the contents of one revealed a bomb, his dispatchers attempted to activate it and blow him up near the soldiers.
Twenty-nine suicide bombers under the age of 18 have been dispatched by terrorist organizations to perpetrate attacks since the outbreak of violence three and a half years ago.
(Midnight Basketball, anyone?)
HA‘ARETZ: Top Fatah activists leaving the movement to join Hamas
Palestinian officials speaking at a meeting in the Muqata this week presented a grim picture of the Palestinian Authority’s situation in the Gaza Strip, highlighting in particular the PA’s lack of control over many activists from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Fatah’s military wing.Militant Palestinian groups already have a reputation for abusing the population of the West Bank and Gaza and scorning PA security chiefs. But the reports from Monday’s meeting, which was attended by PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and PA security force chiefs, are even more disturbing for the PA and for Arafat in particular. According to the reports, a significant segment of armed Fatah leaders in Gaza answer to senior Hamas officials. These Fatah leaders aren’t even taking the phone calls of the leadership in Ramallah.
MAARIV: Fatah terror group threatens Israel’s airports
“The next stage of our struggle will be to strike at Israel’s airports,” a spokesman for the Al-aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades told the London Arabic-language newsparer Al-Sharq al-Awsat. The Brigades are a terror group identified as the military wing of Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian movement led by Yasser Arafat.The spokesman, Abu-Qusay, said the airport attacks would be carried out if Israel continued “attacking the Palestinian people.”
He also referred to the double suicide bombing at ashdod Port Sunday, which was claimed as a joint operation by his group and Hamas’s Iz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades. “Zionist oppression only spurs the resistance movements to develop their resources in ways that will confound all Zionist calculations.” He declined to reveal how the two bombers penetrated Israel from Gaza, but promised that “we will use the same way to cross all checkpoints and penetrate Israel’s strategic targets.”
Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the PLO, blocked any attempt to arrest or halt the terrorist brigade associated with his Fateh party in the most recent “cabinet” meetings in Ramallah.
MAARIV: Syria reportedly willing to bury Abu Abbas
Palestinian sources in Ramallah say that the Syrian government has agreed to bury Palestinian terrorist mastermind Abu Abbas in Syria.Meanwhile, an Israeli source says that Israel would have rejected any request to transfer Abbas’ body to the Palestinian Authority. Abu Abbas died last week in US custody in Iraq.
MAARIV: PA releases suspected bombers of US convoy
In a move that is certain to arouse resentment in Washington, the Palestinian authority this (Sunday) morning released four members of the “popular committees” in Gaza who had been accused of mudering three US security guards. The Americans were killed when a convoy on its way to a scholarship-granting ceremony for young Palestinians was hit by a roadside bomb last October.the PA stated that the suspects were freed for lack of evidence linking them with the attack. earlier, the Palestinian prosecution said the for had intended to hit Israeli tanks, and the Americans were struck inadvertently.
An American diplomatic source said the US had not been informed of the release.
MAARIV: Report: Palestinians preparing for “day after withdrawal”
Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram: PA security forces start implementing plan aimed at preventing Gaza Strip anarchy following Israeli evacuation.According to the newspaper report, Palestinian security forces have started implementing the plan this past Tuesday. The plan, slated to take three weeks to implement, was approved by the Palestinian National Security Council headed by PA chairman Yasser Arafat.
The newspaper is reporting that the plan was formulated following meetings with various Palestinian factions, including Fatah, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad. Palestinian legislative council members in the Gaza Strip have also approved the plan.
The plan, designed to prevent anarchy in the Gaza Strip following an Israeli withdrawal, includes several steps that are meant to emphasize a single Palestinian government, law and order, and prevention of a civil war. Only official Palestinian security forces and guards protecting public facilities will be allowed to carry weapons.
According to the newspaper, a command post comprising most security apparatuses in the PA has also been set up in order to guard the border, prevent mortar and missile fire, and foil arms smuggling through tunnels.
In this installment of OxDem’s Global Democracy Briefings - the latest addition to the Winds of Change.NET regional briefings series - Patrick Belton of OxBlog and OxDem reviews the Greater Middle East Initiative, the drafting and approval of an interim Iraqi constitution, democracy protest in Syria, and the weekend’s Russian elections. Patrick is a researcher at Oxford and also serves as president of the Foreign Policy Society.
TOP TOPIC
Other topics today include: More on the Greater Middle East initiative; Greater budgetary support for National Endowment for Democracy; Russia’s coming elections; Developments in the Palestinian Authority.
Via The Telegraph:
“President Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leadership, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and the Palestinian National Authority, mourn the martyr leader Abu al Abbas, former PLO Executive Committee Member and the Secretary-General of the PLF,” it said. “The Palestinian leadership mourns him as a distinguished fighter and a national leader who devoted his life to serve his own people and his homeland.”
