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Why did Arafat die? (AP photo)
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09/08
Haaretz |
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners September 8, 2005 |
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The release of Yasser Arafat's pathology report has reignited a heated debate about the former PA Chairman's cause of death. Although no sources point to a definitive conclusion, most signs -- including an admission by Arafat's doctor Ashraf al-Kurdi, that the French doctors that cared for Arafat found the virus in his blood -- point to AIDS. Still, some experts maintain that he was poisoned.
Al-Kurdi's implausible allegation that the virus was given to Arafat by Israel to disguise poisoning was rejected outright by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, which according to a report in Haaretz, called the accusation "nonsense".
After Arafat died on November 11, 2004 at the military hospital in Paris, top secret copies of his pathology report were handed over to Arafat's widow, Suha, and senior Palestinian Authority officials.
On the date of his death, IsraelInsider reported that the hospital concealed the cause of his death, with the hospital citing French privacy laws; a concealment which strengthened the suspicion that Arafat had died of AIDS.
After the French rejected requests for Arafat's medical records, as reported by IsraelInsider, suspicions grew even stronger. So strong that Israel conducted an inquiry into the possibility of AIDS. Israeli newspaper Maariv reported that the accumulation of evidence -- gathered by both intelligence and medical sources -- suggested to Israel's "intelligence branch" that such a possibility was "much more than speculation."
The French had accepted a falsified death certificate indicating Arafat's place of birth as Jerusalem, rather than his actual birthplace of Cairo, indicating that the government of France would not let truth get in the way of political expediency.
Arafat's family admitted that to publicize the medical truth would harm the Palestinians.
According to a report in Haaretz, Arafat's pathology report findings are finally about to be published for the first time. The conclusions will appear in the revised edition of "The Seventh War," by Israeli journalists Amos Harel and Avi Isacharoff, and released next week by Yedioth Ahronoth in Hebrew.
Although Israeli and foreign doctors who have seen the report say the details do not lead to a definitive conclusion on what caused the death -- "a discussion among a large number of medical experts... shows that it is impossible to pinpoint a cause that will explain the combination of symptoms that led to the death of the patient," reads the report in Haaretz -- several indications (besides historical evidence and al-Kurdi's admission) suggest that he may have in fact had AIDS.
According to the Haaretz report, Prof. Gil Lugassi, president of the Israel Hematologists Association, who read the French report, said that the symptoms described could be typical of AIDS.
"An infection that begins in the digestive system and deteriorates so quickly into the collapse of the clotting system is typical of AIDS," he says. "What is simply unacceptable and seems very perplexing is the absolute disregard for the possibility of AIDS."
"The report mentions dozens of illnesses or bacteria that were tested for, but there is no evidence of an HIV test, or even a mention of a discussion on the matter. I can only assume that if there were an AIDS test that gave a negative result, there would not have been any problem in writing this in the report."
Haaretz also reported that an AIDS expert from one of Israel's major hospitals also said that the report's total disregard for the possibility of AIDS raised some tough questions.
The expert, who also reviewed the French medical report, says it was unlikely that an illness that continued for some two weeks, with severe diarrhea, vomiting, harm to the digestive system, and the eventual collapse of the blood clotting system, was caused by AIDS.
According to the Haaretz report, a senior Israeli physician who read the report said that based on the symptoms that appeared in Arafat some four hours after he ate dinner on October 12, 2004, about a month before his death, it appears that his death was caused by that meal. "It is a classic case of food poisoning that is taught at medical school," the doctor said.
The doctor added that according to the symptoms described in the report, it appeared that Arafat came down with regular food poisoning caused by a bacteria that releases poisons. Such poisoning should have been discovered in the tests carried out on Arafat in Ramallah, and should have been countered with antibiotics.
The French medical report stipulates that no traces of poison were found in Arafat's body, but the tests were not comprehensive and did not include checks for all types of known poisons.
Strangely enough, a New York Times article indicated that a stroke was the final blow that killed Arafat, but did not even mention AIDS as a possible precursor, indicating that poisoning was also unlikely.
A senior Palestinian official, Saeb Erekat, said he had not seen the records but had been told by many doctors that it was still not clear what had caused Arafat's death. Erekat said he had not heard any proof that Arafat had AIDS or had been poisoned.
"The French report did not indicate any of these things," Erekat said Thursday. "The family should ask the French doctors to publicize this and put an end to all these allegations and rumors."
The AP contributed to this report.
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