Haaretz
Kislev 2, 5765
Hamas political leader Khaled Mashal yesterday
accused Israel of poisoning Yasser Arafat. Although doctors ruled out
poisoning this week, the cause of the Palestinian Authority chairman's
death yesterday is still unknown.
Palestinian Foreign Minister
Nabil Sha'ath told reporters Tuesday that the doctors' diagnosis "rules
out poisoning totally." Sha'ath and other Palestinian leaders in the West
Bank and Gaza have rejected the rumors as not credible.
But leaders
of Palestinian groups residing abroad under Syrian protection, such as
Mashal and Kaddoumi, who heads the Palestine Liberation Organization's
political wing, are trying to recruit adherents to their theory that
Israeli security officials killed Arafat.
"Israel poisoned Arafat
and killed him by using its collaborators, and has thereby also eliminated
the chance for negotiations," Mashal said. "Israel, by killing Arafat, has
killed the peace settlement and is sending a clear message to Palestinians
and Arabs that this will be the fate of whoever rejects a settlement
according to Israeli conditions."
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom
dismissed the allegations as "scandalous and false." His comments were the
first public statement by an Israeli official on rumors that have swirled
through the Arab world since Arafat was hospitalized in France nearly two
weeks ago.