Arafat is rejected by Israel

By Awad al-Rajoub, IOL Palestine Correspondent

GAZA CITY, May 6 (IslamOnline.net) – The Palestinians frustrated assassination attempt on President Yasser Arafat’s life by a poisonous substance, a Fatah official told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, May 6.

“The poisonous white powder was sent by mail to the president’s office, but was discovered before being handed out to the office and now the results of tests on it have yet to be announced,” The Fatah Central Committee Member Abbas Zaki claimed, quoting what he alleged was an informed Palestinian source.

Arafat’s office and the official Palestinian News Agency refused to confirm or deny the alleged assassination attempt.

Zaki blamed the Israeli government for the attempted killing, claiming that the Jewish state “has taken practical steps to get rid of Arafat as part of its campaign against all of Palestinians”.

He added the Palestinian Authority did not notify any Arab or western parties of the attack, lamenting that “We have tried this way before, to no avail”.

The Palestinian Health Ministry Undersecretary declined to comment when asked about the results of the tests on the white powder, saying it is the presidency office who would have a say in on such an issue.

Israel has recently intensified bellicose rhetoric against Arafat and laid siege to his presidential Ramallah headquarters long months ago. Israeli officials, including Premier Ariel Sharon, said they would only meet with newly-appointed Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen), not Arafat.

Abu Mazen, had vowed in his address before the Palestinian legislature to crack down on the violence raging in the Palestinian territories and collect the so-called illegal weapons.

But Palestinian resistance groups hit angrily at the statement, warning Au Mazen not to take on them for the sake of providing guarantees to Israel’s security adding that the Zionist occupation was terrorism personified.

Sharon had earlier said that a possible peace deal with Arafat is by no means possible, claiming that the U.S. administration agrees that Arafat should be no longer in power of the Palestinian areas.

A senior Israeli official said late in April that his country would allow Arafat to leave his headquarters in Ramallah, where he has been effectively trapped for 16 months, but only with a "one-way ticket".

"Yasser Arafat cannot hope for more than a one-way ticket, and Israel will not allow him to move around the West Bank and Gaza Strip encouraging terrorism," the official, who asked not to be named, has told Agence France-Presse (AFP)

The Israeli occupation forces have assassinated a number of Islamic resistance groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad and members of the armed wing of Arafat’s Fatah.

Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon was quoted by Israeli daily Haaretz earlier on Tuesday as saying that Arafat, and not the Islamist groups, as the greatest threat to the new government of Abbas.