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Israel shies away from Arafatâ€™s poisoning rumors

05 July 2012 01:09 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. After the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Wednesday authorized the exhumation of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat upon request by family members on suspicions that he was poisoned, Israeli authorities preferred to remain silent on the issue, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Suspicions that Arafat did not have a natural death have lead his family to request that his remains be examined to determine if he was poisoned with a radioactive substance known as Polonium-210.

After the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera reported a day before that Polonium was found on Arafatâ€™s personal belongings, his widow Suha Arafat made the request to the PNA, which stated that a committee inquiring into the late leaderâ€™s death will also look into the new evidences.

Although fingers have not been pointed towards any culprit yet, many Palestinians suspected Israel was behind Arafatâ€™s death.

On its part, Israeli authorities have not made any formal statement on the matter.

"We have nothing to say," an Israeli official said upon Xinhuaâ€™ s request to comment. "Arafatâ€™s medical records were not sealed by Israelis, but by the doctors at the French hospital where he died. If the Palestinians want to know why he died, they have to ask those doctors, not us."

In 2004, Israel allowed Arafat to leave his West Bank compound after two years of siege to go for medical treatment in a French hospital. He died in France and was buried in the West Bank city of Ramallah without an autopsy.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, called for an international investigation into Arafatâ€™s death, saying the query was a national Palestinian interest.