Arafat poison-plot transcript causes storm in Palestine (News Feature)

By Ofira Koopmans and Maher Abukhater Jul 15, 2009, 15:52 GMT

Ramallah - An alleged transcript purporting to show details of a plot to kill Yasser Arafat released to the media by a political adversary of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is causing a major storm in the Palestinian areas.

According to the document, whose authenticity could not be verified independently, former Israeli premier Ariel Sharon suggested in a March 2, 2004 meeting with Abbas and his former security adviser Mohammed Dahlan that late and legendary Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat should be poisoned.

Abbas, according to the transcript, protested that this could cause 'serious difficulties.'

But he did not storm out of the meeting in shock.

The transcript was presented by Farouq al-Qaddoumi, a senior member of Abbas' Fatah party and of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee, at a news conference in Amman on Monday.

He said Arafat sent him the document shortly before his death - without saying how he had obtained it.

Qaddoumi is currently at odds with Abbas as part of an internal Fatah power struggle.

His news conference sparked sharp reactions in the Palestinian areas, with Abbas' supporters accusing him of being 'deranged,' 'sick,' and politically and psychologically unstable.

The meeting - according to the transcript - focused on security matters and on cracking down on Palestinian militants. In it, Sharon argued that so long as Arafat was alive, none of the plans to crack down on militants being discussed would be able to succeed.

The meeting ostensibly took place eight months before Arafat's death in November 2004. Arafat died aged 75 of a stroke triggered by an intestinal infection.

He had been under siege in his Ramallah headquarters for more than two years, after Israel had declared him an 'obstacle' to peace because of his simultaneous support for both peace negotiations and armed struggle to achieve Palestinian statehood.

The exact cause of the intestinal infection itself was never pinpointed, but doctors suggested food contamination. No traces of toxins were ever found in Arafat's blood.

Conspiracy theories that he was poisoned by Israel nonetheless began to flourish immediately after his death.

However, top Abbas aide Yasser Abde Rabbo fired back that if Qaddoumi had real documents containing 'such grave charges,' why did he not reveal them five years ago?'

Abbas' West Bank-based administration on Wednesday shut down the Ramallah office of al-Jazeera for reporting about Qaddoumi's news conference.

The content of the alleged transcript could be explosive against the backdrop of Abbas' lingering power struggle with the radical Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza.

Hamas has long accused Abbas of being an Israeli and American puppet and of going against what Hamas calls its legitimate armed resistance against Israel. Abbas aides have long accused al-Jazeera of siding with Hamas in the power struggle between the two rival Palestinian camps.

Qaddoumi's allegations could well add wind to the sails of Hamas:

In the transcribed meeting, attended also by American representatives, the sides discussed at length the targeted killing of senior leaders, mainly of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

While Abbas appeared to hold back, Dahlan seemed to agree with Sharon.

According to the Arabic transcript released by Qaddoumi Monday, Sharon told Abbas and Dahlan: 'To start with, we should kill all the military and political leaders of Hamas, Jihad, al-Aqsa Brigades and the Popular Front to create chaos within their ranks that would make it easier for you to finish them off.'

Abbas, according to the transcript, replied that this would 'definitely fail.'

Sharon then allegedly responded to a suggestion by Dahlan to first abide by a 'period of calm' by saying:

'As long as Arafat is still sitting in the Muqata'a in Ramallah, you will definitely fail, because this cunning fox will surprise you all, as he has done in the past, because he knows exactly what you want to do and he will work to make it fail.'

The former Israeli premier then allegedly added at one point: 'The first step therefore should be to poison Arafat and to kill him. I don't want to send him into exile unless there are guarantees from the country that will take him to place him under house arrest...'

Sharon suffered a stroke in early 2006 that left him hospitalized and unable to finish his term as premier.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev on Wednesday dismissed the affair as an internal Fatah struggle. Asked about the alleged Sharon quote, he said: 'It's the first time I've heard of it.'

Later on in the transcript, Sharon allegedly mentions the names of senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders to be assassinated, including Abdel Aziz Rantissi, who was killed in a targeted airstrike in Gaza on April 17, 2004, and Islamic Jihad leader Abdullah Shami.

Abbas again protests, saying - according to the transcript - he preferred a truce in Gaza first 'until we control the ground.'

But Dahlan sides with Sharon, saying, allegedly: 'I am with the killing of Ranteesi and Shami.'