‘Arafat poisoned’ report may hamper Abbas in talks with Israel
For PA chief, best option would have been for predecessor’s grave to have remained undisturbed, says Israeli expert
Elhanan Miller is the former Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel
Swiss laboratory results suggesting that deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died of polonium poisoning are unlikely to stir a wave of violence in the Palestinian territories, Israeli experts said on Thursday, though they will likely hamper efforts by PA President Mahmoud Abbas to conduct peace talks with Israel.
“Dead people don’t carry much weight, and Arafat has been dead for ten years,” Hillel Frisch, an expert in Palestinian politics at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University told The Times of Israel.
Despite his status as father of Palestinian nationhood, Arafat was disliked by most segments of his society, Frisch said. As a result, Israel could expect little more than sporadic demonstrations or stone throwing on the Palestinian street in protest of his alleged poisoning.
“He’s a very controversial figure,” Frisch said. “Among supporters of Hamas there was no love for him, and Palestinian liberals and reformists considered him a dubious character.”
The Palestinian Authority remained largely mum following a dramatic expose on Al Jazeera America Wednesday claiming — based on a Swiss forensic report — that the radioactive substance Polonium found in Yasser Arafat’s bones was at least 18 times the normal level.
On Thursday, Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh told the official WAFA news agency that PA President Mahmoud Abbas was “closely following” the work of the Palestinian investigation committee commissioned with examining Arafat’s death. The committee debriefed members of Fatah’s Central Committee on the Swiss findings and will present its evidence at a press conference in Ramallah on Friday.
Hamas, meanwhile, was less circumspect than Fatah in squarely accusing Israel for Arafat’s death.
The “assassination” of Arafat was “a despicable Zionist crime,” read a statement issued by Hamas on Thursday, calling for criminal proceedings against the perpetrators.
Arafat’s purported assassination by Israel would likely be used by Hamas to further delegitimize peace talks currently underway between the Fatah-led PLO and Israel, said Ido Zelkovitz, who teaches modern Palestinian politics at Haifa University.
“Hamas will now be able to ask ‘what rationale is there for negotiating with a state that assassinates its negotiating partner?’,” Zelkovitz told The Times of Israel. “I assume we will be hearing things in this spirit from Hamas in the coming days.”
Qatar-based Hamas official Izzat Al-Rishq wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday that “stopping the pointless negotiations with the murderers and halting all forms of security cooperation with the occupation is the minimal response to the proof of its involvement in Arafat’s killing.”
The Islamic movement was not the only one asking tough questions which Mahmoud Abbas would rather not hear. On Wednesday, Yasser Zaatreh, a Jordan-based Palestinian journalist with nearly a quarter of a million followers on Twitter, posted a short message daring Abbas.
“If Netanyahu admits tomorrow that Zionist security agencies assassinated Arafat, will Abbas withdraw from the negotiations? Of course not, nor will he change a thing in his [political] program,” Zaatreh tweeted.
“Just as a reminder: Abbas and [Palestinian security official Mohammed] Dahlan are those who provided the proper environment for Arafat’s assassination. Abbas presented himself as an alternative [to Arafat] and Dahlan supported him. Many people have said this before.”
Zelkovitz of Haifa University acknowledged that the Swiss report could create a menacing ambiance for Abbas on the Palestinian street as negotiations with Israel move forward. Abbas, he recalled, opposed the exhumation of Arafat’s remains last year.
“For Abu-Mazen (Abbas), the best option would have been for Arafat to remain in his grave along with his legacy.”
