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Demonstrators march with French flag with Arafat's face on it, in Lebanon (AP)
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Palestinian officials with a poster of Arafat and a flag on which is written "Merci" (thank you). (AP)
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| By israelinsider staff November 13, 2004 |
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After a week of French hospital officials covering up for Yasser Arafat's deteriorating health, apparently on orders of Suha Arafat, French municipal authorities are now accused of falsifying his Death Certificate.
Sammy Ghozlan, President of the Jewish Community Council of Seine Saint Denis, near Paris, issued a statement noting that the official announcement of Arafat's death, published in the daily le Parisien on November 12, 2004, lists Arafat's birthplace as Jerusalem. The announcement was, reportedly, based on the death certificate filed the day before in Clamart, the city in which Arafat died.
Arafat, in fact, was born in Cairo, Egypt, as his published birth certificate, his official biography, his Nobel prize biographical statement, and other independent sources attest. Palestinian mythology seeks to suppress this fact and invent the myth that he was not a foreigner but a Jerusalem native.
There are concerns that this falsified official document could be used to substantiate a claim by Arafat to be buried in Jerusalem.
A statement by Ghozlan demands that the French authorities investigate the falsification, to correct the falsehood, and determine who was responsible for the distortion.
The death certificate does not list the cause of death. France is one of the few countries that does not oblige the cause of death to be listed on the death certificate. Some sources speculate that this fact influenced the choice of France as Arafat's final destination.
Some Palestinians, including Hamas Leader Khaled Mashaal, and Arafat's Jordanian doctor, are suggesting that Arafat was poisoned, apparently by Israel, a charge picked up and repeated frequently by Palestinians in recent days. PA Minister Nabil Shaath, while denying that Arafat was poisoned, blamed his death on the poor sanitary condition of Arafat's three year confinement in the Muqata in Ramallah.
Israeli sources suggest that a quiet deal was made in which Israel would not reveal Arafat's HIV/AIDs illness -- reportedly well-known in intelligence circles -- in exchange for Palestinian officials scotching claims of poisoning.
Members of the public and press have asked for copies of the death certificate to be released, but registrars the city of Clamart, apparently contrary to French law, is refusing to issue copies of the certificate.
The French doctor, a general in the French army, was made to read contrived statements about the supposed health of the patient, albeit conveying that the statement was concocted according to the wishes of the family (Suha Arafat) rather than reflecting the medical conclusions of the family.
Eventually Suha Arafat demanded that no further statements be issued. She has taken court action to prevent access of visitors to her husband or release of his medical records, and turned down an offer to release his medical records in exchange for a reported two million dollars.
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