TEL AVIV: An Al-Jazeera report released Tuesday suggests that the death of Yasser Arafat, the former leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, was the result of poisoning. It had been previously assumed that Arafat died from natural causes, though many conspiracy theories alighted quickly after the event. Al-Jazeera conducted an investigation which spanned nine months, the results of which concluded that Arafat's final immediate possessions had upon them high levels of polonium, an extremely radioactive and toxic element, Polonium-210. His keffiyeh, clothing, and toothbrush, the report states, each had elevated levels of the element. A comprehensive examination of Arafat's bones could offer more insight, said scientists based in the Institut de Radiophysique in Switzerland. Towards the tail end of the Second Palestinian Intifada, a popular uprising against the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Arafat was confined for an extended period of time in his military compound in Ramallah. He was overcome by an unidentified illness that eventually resulted in his death in Paris hospital on November 11, 2004. Tests showed that the majority of the Polonium-210—between 60 and 80 percent—could not have derived from natural sources. After Arafat's widow Suha called for his body to be exhumed, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stated that he “sees no reason" why her request shouldn't be honored. President Abbas's spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, told the Palestinian news agency Wafa that the Palestinian Authority was prepared to assist any efforts to demystify the obscurity that surrounds the late Arafat's death. “There is no religious or political reason that prevents further investigation into this matter, including exhuming his body by a specialized and trusted party at the request and approval of his family," Abu Rudeineh said. Arafat, one of the key founders of the autonomous Palestinian struggle for national sovereignty, left behind a controversial legacy. Many Palestinians, regardless of their political affiliations, still regard him as a national hero and a freedom fighter. Despite Arafat's occasional attempts to build ties between the Palestinian struggle and the Israeli left, he never managed to cultivate widespread support in Israel. Furthermore, the Israeli peace camp suffered a rapid decline in popular prestige following the outbreak of the Second Intifada. In the past, numerous explanations were offered as the causes of his death: the flu, poisoning by thallium, food poisoning, AIDS, a stroke, and more. Since the release of the Al-Jazeera report on Tuesday, several accusations that Israel was behind Arafat's potential poisoning have begun to spring up in various media outlets. Hamas official Salah al-Bardaweel also called for a full investigation to clarify the causes of Arafat's death, claiming that there was little doubt Israel had “assassinated" the late Palestinian president. In 1997, al-Bardaweel pointed out, Israeli intelligence officers were caught trying to poison a Hamas official in Jordan. Israel denies the accusations. In 2003, however, the country's security cabinet had publicly declared the removal of Arafat as an official objective. One Israeli official suggested that Arafat's Palestinian political revivals were more likely to have been behind any potential assassination. “I think Israel probably killed Arafat," Omar, a university student from Ramallah, told Bikyamasr.com. “They had even said during the [Second] Intifada that it would be better to kill him than exile him." “But what's the point in excavating his body? If it was Israel behind his death, no one will care, nothing will happen. And if we find out it was a Palestinian plot, we will have another civil war. It's not good either way. He should rest in peace." Some commentators have predicted a third Intifada, in the case that credible evidence suggests Israel's responsibility. “Often times when Palestinians are dealt an injustice, we fear that we're looking down the gun barrel of a third Intifada," Alex Liatsis, a scholar of Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University, told Bikyamasr.com. “The same predictions were made when the US vetoed Mahmoud Abbas's bid for statehood in the United Nations. [Another Intifada] may happen, but much proto-state building progress has been made since the Second Intifada. Violence would hamper that progress. That's not to say they don't have a right to rise up and demand statehood if negotiations continue to fail [...] But I don't see it happening," Liatsis concluded.
