PA Libel: Israel and the US
poisoned Yasser Arafat
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=2805
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
The Palestinian Authority continues to spread the libel that Israel poisoned Yasser Arafat -- with the approval and help of the United States. Palestinian Media Watch has for years documented this recurring libel, which is spread by PA and Fatah leaders, academics and clerics. It is even disseminated through cultural events and media messages for children.
Earlier this summer, in a dramatic performance at a PLO cultural festival, two young Palestinian boys lamented Arafat's death, and compared his death at the hands of the Jews to the death of Jesus:
Boy 1 [addressing Arafat]: "Father, father the Elder [Arafat]. Why did it happen this way? Why did it happen this way? Death chose you, and you did not complete the path."
Boy 2: "Do not ask why it happened this way. Yesterday they crucified Jesus; today they poisoned the father, the Elder [Arafat]."
[PA TV (Fatah), June 4, 2010]
The PA Minister of Culture was present at this performance.
The following accusation that Israel killed Arafat, written by a Fatah member of the PLO's Palestinian National Council, appeared this week in the official PA daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida:
Khaled Mismar, member of the PLO's Palestinian National Council:
"[In 2003] Israel, with the support of the new American administration of President Bush, laid oppressive siege to our late symbol, Yasser Arafat, until they got him with poison, since they weren't able to kill him using their tanks, which besieged his home in Ramallah. The details of the story are known to everyone, young and old, among our Palestinian people and throughout the world."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 10, 2010]
Nashat Al-Aqatsh, a lecturer at Bir-Zeit University, said in July while discussing the peace process:
"In the past [Israel claimed] no Palestinian partner existed, and they [Israel] killed the late Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat."
[PA TV (Fatah), July 27, 2010]
