(Washington Post)Unwilling to accept the official explanation that Arafat died of an illness, many Palestinians seem to favor the explanation that Israel, with help from a senior Arafat aide, poisoned him, a charge Israelis deny and many others have discounted. The French government went as far as it could on Wednesday to quash rumors that Arafat was poisoned. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei on Wednesday ordered an inquiry to determine the cause of Arafat's death. "In the Western media, you think this is paranoid conspiracy theories, but here in the Arab world, that is not the case at all," said Hishad Ahmed, a political scientist at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah.
2004-11-18 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive