“He could wake up, but he could not wake up,” said Shahid. (AFP)

CLAMART, France, November 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Palestinian refugees across Lebanon joined others in occupied Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in praying Friday, November 5, for the recovery of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, fighting for his life at a Paris hospital.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Arafat denied Friday that he was brain dead, but said that the 75-year-old was “between life and death” and in a reversible coma in his hospital near Paris.

“He could wake up, but he could not wake up,” said Leila Shahid, speaking to the private French radio station RTL.

When asked about a statement from a French medical source who said late Thursday that Arafat was brain dead, and therefore in a state from which he could not recover, Shahid said: “I categorically deny that.”

The coma was such that Arafat could stay in it “a long time" or "come out of it,” she said.

Shahid said that all of Arafat's “vital organs” were functioning, adding that he had “opened his eyes and smiled” during a visit to the hospital by French President Jacques Chirac Thursday afternoon, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Refugees Praying

In the shanty town of Ain El-Hilweh on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon and the 11 other camps across Lebanon, Thousands of refugees, many wearing the traditional Arab checkered scarf, converged on mosques to pray for Arafat’s recovery, AFP reported.

Since news of the drastic worsening of Arafat's health condition Thursday, the camps have been witnessing continuous flows of spontaneous candle-lit demonstrations and overnight wakes for prayers at home.

With great sorrow written on their faces, refugees at Ain El-Helweh mosques repeated verses from the Noble Qur’an during midday Friday prayers for “the recovery, loyalty and allegiance to president Yasser Arafat.”

Mahmud Hamad, a member of Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement, wiped away tears from his eyes before laying down his arms and joining the prayers.

“I will keep praying until Arafat recovers and I have also asked my wife and children at home to pray for him,” said the Palestinian man, wearing a T-shirt with Arafat's picture.

Ahmad, a member of Hamas Islamic resistance movement, also joined the prayers because “we are all praying for Palestine and we are appealing for the recovery of Yasser Arafat who is the symbol of the Palestinian cause.”

Across Ain El-Helweh, banners called for “praying for the recovery of Abu Ammar,” the nom-de-guerre of the 75-year-old Palestinian leader who was flown earlier this week to France where he remains in a coma.

“He had sacrificed his life to fight for the Palestinians’ right to return to their homes from which the Jews had forced them out since 1948,” at the establishment of the state of Israel, said Khaled Ahmad.

In Sidon, prominent Lebanese Sunni Muslim Sheikh Maher Hammud, the imam of the Jerusalem mosque in the southern capital, told worshipers that “we are sad for Arafat, who is a great leader, because he had been abandoned by all.”

Israeli Statements

Palestinians thank France and its president (AFP)

The Palestinian statement came amid widespread speculation over the fate of Arafat, who was transferred to a French hospital outside Paris October 29.

Israel’s TV reported Thursday said the veteran Palestinian leader had died, but both French medical officials and Palestinian officials close to him have denied this.

Shahid also criticized Israeli media for reporting Arafat's death Thursday.

“Unfortunately I am obliged to say that Israel was indulging in disinformation when it announced the president's death at 2.00 p.m. yesterday, thereby encouraging the American president to express the hope that the good lord welcome his soul in paradise,” she said.

Informed erroneously of Arafat's death Thursday, Bush said: “My first reaction is: God bless his soul.”

According to Shahid, Arafat is in a “reversible coma because he was put under anesthetic so that the necessary tests could be carried out, in other words an endoscopy, a coloscopy, biopsy of his spine marrow -- because we still have no diagnosis.

“All the vital organs are functioning. But without a diagnosis, and with no clue after six days of tests as to the nature of the disease, obviously that can lead to confusion,” she said.

AFP has quoted a French medical source Thursday saying that Arafat was “brain dead” and breathing only thanks to artificial life support systems.

In strictly technical terms, Arafat was “not dead,” the source told AFP on condition of confidentiality, adding that the 75-year-old leader had slipped into an irreversible coma and could only be maintained in his vegetative state through ventilation machines.

The information followed a short statement by a senior French military official who said “Mr Arafat is not dead”.

The Palestinian Authority president's condition was "complex," General Christian Estripeau, the spokesman for the French defense forces' medical service, told reporters outside the Paris military hospital which had been tending to Arafat.

“The patient's condition needs appropriate treatment which required his being transferred to a unit suited to his pathology on the afternoon of Wednesday November 3,” he said Thursday.

He refused to take questions, but said his statement had been prepared according to the wishes of Arafat's wife, Suha.

Israel Blocks Burial

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has reaffirmed that he would block moves to bury Arafat in occupied Jerusalem.

“As long as I am in power, and I have no intention of leaving, he (Arafat) will not be buried in (occupied) Jerusalem,” public radio quoted Sharon as telling a weekly cabinet meeting Sunday.

A team headed by Sharon's private secretary, Israel Maimon, has drawn up a report to explain the premier's refusal and why such a burial would be unpopular in the country as a whole.

Israel's private Channel 2 television, quoting political officials, said Israel would only sanction an Arafat burial in the Gaza Strip and would not allow its arch foe to be buried on ground it controls.

The Arafat family has a cemetery plot in Gaza and Sharon intends to pull all Israeli settlers and troops out of the territory by the end of 2005.

In the past, Arafat has said that he would like to be buried in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City, considered the third holiest site for the world's Muslims, after Makkah and Medina in Saudi Arabia.