Fears Heighten Over Arafat's Health
By Nkechi Nwosu, Foreign Affairs Editor
CONFUSING signals on the bill of health of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat yesterday pointed to a state of hopelessness, implying that he may never return home alive.
Though stern-looking French military hospital spokesman General Christian Estripeau said he was in "stable" comatose condition, but on life support, funeral talks by friends from the international community are in top gear. French , Egyptian and Palestinian officials reportedly were yesterday in Paris discussing his burial plans.
Back home, Palestinians devoted yesterday to praying for Arafat to survive as clouds hung over honouring the leader's wish for a Jerusalem burial space. Sources said Arafat might be buried in Gaza as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said that his arch-enemy's wish would not come true.
Arafat lay in a coma "between life and death" yesterday as senior Palestinian officials met to consider a future without him.
Palestinian envoy to France Leila Shahid denied the Palestinian president, in a French military hospital on the outskirts of Paris, was brain dead and said he was in a reversible coma.
"Today we can say that Yasser Arafat in his state of health and at his age is at a critical juncture between life and death," Shahid, the permanent Palestinian envoy to Paris, told French radio station RTL.
"I assure you that he is not brain dead. He is in a coma. We are not sure what type. But it is a reversible coma."
Arafat, who has spent the past eight days at the hospital being treated for an unspecified illness, slipped into a coma early on Thursday.
The top Palestinian Islamic cleric said yesterday it was 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."
Israel's justice minister, Yosef Lapid, however, said Israel would not permit a Jerusalem funeral, saying the city is "where Jewish kings are buried and not Arab terrorists."
Sabri, the top Moslem official in Jerusalem, did not elaborate whether Arafat had a written will. However, the 75-year-old Palestinian leader has told aides privately in recent years that he would like to be buried near Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine.
The comments from both sides portended a likely political fight over any Arafat funeral arrangement.
Palestinian leaders hope to enlist international support for his burial at Al Aqsa, a Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity. Negotiations with Israel would only begin after Arafat's death, the official said.
The mosque compound is built on the ruins of the biblical Jewish temples and is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount. Burial in Jerusalem would be seen as strengthening Palestinian claims to the traditionally Arab sector of the city as a future capital.
The Palestinians have not been in contact with Israeli officials over the question of burying Arafat, officials said. "It's premature at this stage to talk about burying or not burying," Palestinian lawmaker Saeb Erekat said.
Israeli security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Gaza Strip was the only burial option, and that they opposed allowing Arafat to be interred in the West Bank, including the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis.
Lapid did not refer to a possible ban on a West Bank burial, but told Israel TV's Channel Two: "Now we are talking about Gaza. We have no problems with Gaza, of course."
But he underlined 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.
Israel has sought to keep a low profile in dealing with the deterioration in Arafat's health, with Prime Minister Sharon instructing government officials to avoid speaking to reporters on the issue. Lapid, a long-time journalist, is known for speaking bluntly.
Arafat in the last three years was holed in his Ramallah headquarters in the West Bank, after Israel besieged his compound more than two years ago.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said there have been no contacts with Israel on funeral arrangements, telling The Associated Press from Gaza that officials have heard of Israel's plans only from the media.
Arafat's clan, the Al-Kidwas, are originally from Gaza, though the Palestinian leader grew up in Jerusalem and Cairo. The family has a small plot of 25 to 30 graves in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. The overgrown patch is in the middle of a busy vegetable market and would not be considered appropriate.
Other burial options include a seaside plot next to his old headquarters in Gaza City, or Gaza City's "martyrs' cemetery" east of the city, close to Israel.
A funeral in Gaza would pose a security nightmare for foreign dignitaries attending the event. There has been increasing chaos in the coastal strip in recent months, with rival groups of gunmen and security chiefs battling for control ahead of a planned Israeli troop withdrawal next year.
Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, yesterday said they were instructed to prepare for the arrival of foreign envoys for the funeral, but the Palestinians weren't ready yet to co-operate in the planning.
Israel anticipated receiving envoys from countries with which it has diplomatic relations and providing security for them until they pass into Palestinian-controlled territory, officials said. Envoys from other countries would likely arrive across the border from Jordan or Egypt, depending on the location of the grave site.
It was unclear who would attend. Although Arafat was elected President of the Palestinian Authority formed after he returned from exile in 1994, it is not a widely recognised government. The Palestinians have observer status at the United Nations.
Erekat chided Israel after some people celebrated the reports that Arafat had died.
"I hope the Israeli public will show sensitivities. I've seen some Israelis dancing in the streets, hugging each other other yesterday," Erekat told Cable News Network "I think it's alien... I cannot describe my feelings. It's heartbreaking to see Israelis hugging and kissing in such circumstances."
After Israeli media reported Thursday night that Arafat had died, some young Orthodox Jews gathered in a downtown Jerusalem square to celebrate - singing, dancing, distributing sweets and declaring that one of their greatest enemies was "on his way to hell."
But back home, 14 Palestinian factions met in a show of unity meant to avoid strife in a possible power vacuum.
Arafat has not named a successor and his illness has raised fears of chaos among Palestinians waging a four-year-old uprising for an independent state next to Israel.
French President Jacques Chirac, visited Palestinian president in hospital on Thursday, and later hinted at a possible future beyond Arafat, the symbol of the Palestinian struggle for four decades.
"I hope that whatever the circumstances, the negotiations, the reforms, peace, establish themselves and become stronger in Palestine," Chirac said at a European Union summit in Brussels.
In the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians were glued to radio and television broadcasts. Security has been boosted at Jewish settlements, Israeli television said.
Some of Arafat's powers, for security and financing, have already been handed over to Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, a leading moderate.
The European Union underlined the need to press on with peace moves on Thursday after the bloc's foreign ministers discussed efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. EU leaders yesterday issued a new call for peace directed at the United States Government.
President George W. Bush also said on Thursday that Washington would continue to "work for a free Palestinian state that's at peace with Israel" if Arafat died.
Bush has backed the idea of a Palestinian state as part of a peace deal with Israel, but has tried to shut Arafat out.
The death of a Palestinian leader Israel and Washington see as an obstacle to peace could reshuffle the cards in the Middle East conflict. The former guerrilla is loved by most Palestinians and reviled by many Israelis.
Both Washington and Israel accuse Arafat of fomenting violence against Israel, a charge he has denied. The Palestinians want Gaza and the West Bank -- territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war -- for a state.
A small group of Arafat supporters spent the night outside the hospital, holding Palestinian flags and keeping candles alight on the pavement near pictures of him.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has refused all dealings with Arafat since coming to power in 2001, instead confining him to his West Bank headquarters until his dramatic airlift to Paris last Friday.
Arafat's death or permanent incapacitation has the potential to galvanise the Middle East peace process.
