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Palestinians Exhume Yasser Arafat’s Remains, Experts Try to Solve His Mysterious Cause of Death

Nov. 27, 2012 7:09am Billy Hallowell

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian authorities on Tuesday opened Yasser Arafat’s grave and foreign experts took samples from his remains as part of a long-shot attempt — eight years after the iconic leader’s mysterious death — to determine whether he was poisoned, as relatives and some political successors have claimed.

The exhumation began before dawn, under the cover of huge sheets of blue tarpaulin draped over Arafat’s mausoleum in his former government compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

By mid-morning, the grave was reclosed, said Tawfik Tirawi, a former Palestinian intelligence chief who heads the investigation into Arafat’s death.

Yasser Arafats Body Exhumed, Experts Seeks Cause of Death

Workers remove the tarpaulin obscuring the entrance to the mausoleum of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, on November 27, 2012, at the Muqataa in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The remains of iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were exhumed and experts began taking samples to be tested for signs of poisoning, Palestinian sources told. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Arafat died in November 2004 at a French military hospital, a month after suddenly falling ill at his Ramallah compound, which was at the time besieged by Israeli troops. The immediate cause of death was a stroke, but the underlying reasons were unclear, leading to widespread belief in the Arab world that Israel poisoned the 75-year-old symbol of Palestinian nationalism.

Israel has denied involvement in Arafat’s death.

An investigation was launched at the time, but it then lay dormant for years, only to be revived this summer when a Swiss lab detected elevated traces of a lethal radioactive substance, polonium-210, in biological stains on his clothing.

The lab said the tests were inconclusive and that it needed to examine the remains for a clearer picture. Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, authorized the exhumation despite strong cultural and religious taboos against disturbing a gravesite, apparently to avoid any suggestion that the current leadership was standing in the way of a thorough investigation.

A Palestinian soldiers leaves the mausoleum of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, on November 27, 2012, at the Muqataa in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Eight years after the death of Arafat, his remains have been exhumed with experts set to test for signs that he was poisoned. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Since mid-November, workers have been drilling through thick layers of concrete encasing the tomb.

The grave was opened before dawn Tuesday, according to a Palestinian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the details of the exhumation with the media.

The official said some of the remains were moved to a nearby mosque, but that the team then encountered technical difficulties. He would not elaborate. The experts decided to return the remains to the grave and take the samples without moving what was left of the body, the official said.

The exhumation was attended by experts from Switzerland, France and Russia who will examine the samples in their home countries, the official said. Earlier, samples were also taken from Arafat’s bedroom, office and personal belongings, he said.

Palestinians walk in front of a mural of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (R) in Gaza City on November 27, 2012. The body of Arafat was exhumed, eight years after his death, as part of an investigation into allegations he was poisoned. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

Public reaction in the West Bank was mixed.

Nidaa Younes, a Palestinian government employee, said it was unnecessary to dig up the remains. “Our religion forbids exhuming graves. It is not nice at all to do this, even if religion permits it in some cases,” she said, adding that she believes Israel was responsible for Arafat’s death.

Ramallah resident Tony Abdo said he supports the exhumation, expecting it to prove that Arafat did not die a natural death.

Suspicions about Arafat’s death flared again over the summer, when the Arab satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera took some of Arafat’s belongings, provided by his widow Suha, to a Swiss lab for testing. The belongings being tested included what Mrs. Arafat said were her husband’s fur hat and a woolen cap with some of his hair, a toothbrush, and clothing with his urine and blood stains.

The Institute of Radiation Physics discovered elevated traces of polonium-210, the same substance that killed Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB officer turned Kremlin critic, in 2006.

Mrs. Arafat urged the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank-based self-rule government headed by Abbas, to exhume her husband’s remains and also asked the French government to launch a separate investigation. Eventually, Abbas also requested that Russia join the probe.

Photo Credit: AP

But the exhumation and the testing of the remains might not resolve the mystery. Polonium-210 decomposes rapidly, and some experts say it is not clear whether any remaining samples will be sufficient for testing.

For decades, Arafat was the symbol of the Palestinians’ struggle for an independent state. Since returning to the Palestinian territories in the early 1990s, as part of interim peace deals with Israel, he zigzagged between leading negotiations with Israel and condoning violence as a means of obtaining political goals.

Arafat, along with two Israeli leaders, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for his commitment to work toward peace with Israel. He later presided over the Palestinians as they waged a violent uprising against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the territories they seek for an independent state.

Israel accused him of ordering attacks against Israelis, and confined him to his Ramallah compound. He stayed there for more than two years before falling ill.

In his later years, Arafat also faced criticism at home, with some accusing his political circle of corruption and the pocketing of large amounts of aid. But he remains a widely revered figure in the Palestinian territories, and his portrait frequently appears in government offices and street posters.P

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Comments (36)

barryfadams
Posted on November 28, 2012 at 6:20am
Even if they discover he was poisoned, they cannot possibly conclude who poisoned him. After all, maybe Abu Mazen had him poisoned in order to finally succeed him.

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ClaudeRains
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 10:00pm
He was a homosexual who practiced unsafe sex and contracted the AIDS virus from one or more of his partners.

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Willik
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 6:19pm
No mystery here. When the Palestinian Authority discovered that he and his wife were living it up in France on the $1 Billion he and she stole from the Authority.

She, Suha, is on the run from Tunisian authorities for imbezlemant. Her criminal ways didn’t end with bilking the Palestinian Authority, it seems.

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- Wayner
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 9:43pm
  They should check his rectum… I’m going with the story that he died of aids.
  
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Arshloch
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 3:43pm
I hope that, when he is reburied, the churls remember to water the grave site well so that the grass will grow once more. Swine urine would be the prefered choice of liquid.

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UNALIEN
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 12:28pm
Arafat was KGB from early days,,, and in the Marxist “gangster” world, he could have been murdered by anyone, Marxists murder each other all the time…

“FP: Why has the American and Israeli leadership been deceived so long about Arafat’s criminal and terrorist activities?

Pacepa: Because Arafat is a master of deceit—and I unfortunately contributed to that. In March 1978, for instance, I secretly brought Arafat to Bucharest to involve him in a long-planned Soviet/Romanian disinformation plot. Its goal was to get the United States to establish diplomatic relations with him, by having him pretend to transform the terrorist PLO into a government-in-exile that was willing to renounce terrorism. Soviet president Leonid Brezhnev believed that newly elected US president Jimmy Carter would swallow the bait.”

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UNALIEN
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 12:15pm
“some of the remains were moved to a nearby mosque, but that the team then encountered technical difficulties. He would not elaborate.”

Clearly they found and needed to remove the 72 virgin HAMASPHRODITES

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i have black immunity
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 12:14pm
And if he was poisoned, how can they proove who did it? I guess in the PC world we already know the answer!

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Secret Squirrel
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 12:13pm
.
I think some smart Palestinian killed him when it was
discovered how much money he stole from his people.
Billions in his Swiss account.

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bankerpapaw
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 10:59am
Dead is dead. I’ll bet he smells better than he did alive.

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- TruthPolice60
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 11:17am
  And he looks better, too.
  
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- Jezcruzen
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 12:07pm
  The mystery is solved. Old ArrowRat was struck in the face by a pork chop!
  
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KURT1010
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 10:58am
I always thought he was as ugly as woopi goldberg ! And who cares ?

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Full_Fathom_Five
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 10:39am
This islamo-fascist , anti Semitic SOB, and buffoon–the nephew of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (a Nazi sympathizer who prided himself in helping to found the Bosnian Division of the SS during the Second World-War)–was suffering from end stage cancer (Lymphoma, I believe). If he were poisoned, it certainly was not by any Israeli action. He was more of a threat to Israel dead than alive. The Palestinian powers in place today along with their Hamas puppet masters had much more to gain with Arafat’s death than Israel ever did.

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Jimizrite
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 9:44am
who cares if he was poisoned …. Israel should have targeted him with a missle straight up his ***

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The Bagginator
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 9:26am
That’s got to be one putrid ass, stinking hole.

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IndyGuy
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 8:51am
“Experts Try to Solve His Mysterious Cause of Death”…No…They are trying to lay it on Israel…

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Pat Alexander
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 8:44am
Has anyone seen Ringo Starr lately ?

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- The Bagginator
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 9:29am
  No, but Larry Fine just walked by.
  
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raderby
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 8:29am
died of aids.

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- G-WHIZ
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 10:33am
  naaa….DIED OF TWINKIE OVERDOSE!! :>)
  
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DadRocked
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 8:25am
and their local propaganda will read

“How Arafat Was Raised From The Dead”

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cjherin
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 8:19am
There were rumors at the time of Arafat’s death that he died of AIDS, but it was covered up to protect his (cough) “legacy” (cough). His wife lived the good life in Paris, he was surrounded by men in his compound every day, it’s definitely a possibility, If this exhumation leads to confirmation that he died of AIDS, it will never be made public.

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- Gary_K
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 8:29am
  They are out to prove nothing other than Israel did it.
  
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- crueltiming
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 1:58pm
  he probably died from choking on a piece of donkey meat–unfortunately for him it was still attached to the donkey.
  
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tzion
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 7:56am
Arafat was an open sponsor of terrorism and a corrupt, money-laundering warmonger. He was addicted to power and was charismatic enough to get half the world to give it too him. Even Palestinians recognized this and voted for Hamas instead of Arafat’s Fatah.

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Gonzo
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 7:47am
I bet he smells better dead than alive.

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Gary_K
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 7:31am
I think this is being done so they can blame Israel.

Didnt yesyouarefat have aids?

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- blanco5
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 7:50am
  I think you nailed it.
  
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- cjherin
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 8:46am
  I agree with you that they are trying to blame Israel for his death, I’m just saying that the real truth will never come out.
  
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- urrybr
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 6:25pm
  I think someone else nailed it . . . uh . . . him.
  
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kickagrandma
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 7:19am
The bullet hole in his forehead wasn’t a clue?
The multiple knife wounds in his back didn’t give it away?

Ah, maybe the cause of death was the same as Breitbart’s????

So many possibilities…..

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RIGHT_WHERE_IT_HURTS
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 7:18am
They’ll blame Israel, it was the Russians, and the mooslim wack-jobs will use him as a rallying focal point.

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truthsurfer
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 7:15am
They dug him up and opened the casket and found his boyfriend humping him in the casket.

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truthsurfer
Posted on November 27, 2012 at 7:14am
Who cares he is another dead twel head in hell where he belongs

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- bertr
  Posted on November 27, 2012 at 7:52am
  I take it you’re not so much into trying to make the pro-israel cause look good to the undecided visitor, eh?
  
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