Ain-Al-Yaqeen - November 5, 2004

		November 5, 2004

A SUDDEN DETERIORATION IN ARAFAT'S HEALTH AND HIS TRANSFER TO THE INTENSIVE CARE UNIT.
PALESTINIANS HOLD ISRAEL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DETERIORATION OF PRESIDENT ARAFAT'S HEALTH.
A CALL FOR THE PALESTINIAN LEADERSHIP TO STAND STRONG AGAINST ISRAEL.

President Yasser Arafat is in intensive care undergoing fresh tests after his still-unexplained condition took a sudden turn for the worse, Palestinian officials said.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinian leader's condition had seriously deteriorated last Wednesday and he was rushed into intensive care at the French military hospital where he has been undergoing treatment for a week.

In Israel, the media, citing Israeli intelligence and Palestinian officials, said Arafat suffered organ failure and that he had lost consciousness several times.

However, Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said reports that Arafat's organs had failed were "unfounded." He described Arafat's condition as "stable and serious" and said that the most recent blood tests and CT scans conducted last Wednesday night and Thursday morning were encouraging.

An ailing Yasser Arafat had entered a fourth day of emergency treatment last Monday at a French military hospital specializing in blood disorders, but the cause of his precipitous decline in health remained unexplained.

Palestinian officials say their leader's condition has improved markedly since he was rushed from his battered Ramallah headquarters in the West Bank to Paris last Friday _ and that he does not suffer from leukemia or cancer. But that has not been publicly confirmed by French physicians involved in his treatment.

Last Sunday, Palestinians said, Arafat was healthy enough to telephone colleagues, read telegrams from world leaders, and eat a normal breakfast. Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said all types of cancer had been ruled out.

However, Israel Army Radio last Monday quoted a senior military intelligence official as saying Israel assumes Arafat suffers from either a severe viral infection or cancer.

The official, who was not identified further, appeared before the Israeli parliament's defense and foreign affairs committee, which was discussing Arafat's condition in a close-door meeting.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said last Sunday the health of President Yasser Arafat had improved since he arrived in Paris for treatment at a nearby hospital.

"He (Arafat) is much better, talks better, feels better", Shaath told reporters after speaking with Arafat's aides in Paris.

The National Security Council, chaired by Premier Ahmed Qurei, convened in Ramallah for the first time in 37 years without Arafat.

"This is to show that the president is still with us and that no one is trying to take his place". Palestinian cabinet member Salah Tamari told Deutsche Presse-Agentur DPA.

The council evaluated the security situation in the Palestinian Authority and how best to maintain law and order, officials said. Later in the afternoon, the Fatah central committee, the leading Palestinian political party, was slated to meet, also chaired by Premier Ahmed Qurei.

Doctors examining Palestinian president Yasser Arafat had ruled out leukaemia, according to a Palestinian diplomatic official.

"The doctors exclude for the time being any possibility of leukaemia. There are other possibilities," the Palestinian envoy to Paris, Laila Shahid, said last Saturday.

Arafat was carried into a French military hospital in the Paris suburb of Clamart on Friday, after arriving by helicopter at the end of a six-hour journey from his shell-battered compound in the West Bank city of Ram Allah.

Earlier, one of Arafat's senior aides, Jibril al-Rajub, played down talk of cancer.

"Initial checks confirm that his case is fine. The possibility that the president has cancer has been ruled out," al-Rajub said. "All initial checks indicate that the president will regain his health very soon."

Shahid told reporters last Friday Arafat has had intestinal flu for at least three weeks, "but obviously there is more to it than that". Doctors needed "several days" to form an accurate diagnosis.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was "pleased that (Arafat) is now in a sophisticated medical facility where his health condition can be more carefully assessed. And I trust he will get the treatment that he needs".

Powell made his comments in an interview with Egyptian television last Friday, a transcript of which was released by the US Department of State.

An Israeli security source said of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to allow his long-time foe to return after treatment: "We assessed Arafat's condition is irreversible and that it will eventually lead one way or the other to his disappearance from the political arena.

"That assessment led Sharon to decide to allow him to come back if doctors recommended, in the calculation that this scenario would probably never arise."

Officials in the West Bank said Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei would run the day-to-day affairs of the Palestinian Authority. Former prime minister Mahmud Abbas will run the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Should Arafat die, parliamentary speaker Rawhi Fattuh would replace him as Palestinian Authority president for a 60-day period during which elections would be held.

The Palestinian leadership convened without Yasser Arafat in the chair for the first time in years, while doctors in a French hospital conducted a battery of blood tests to see whether the veteran leader's illness is terminal.

Anxious to maintain an air of normalcy, the top committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization held its regular weekly meeting in Arafat's office in the crumbling compound to which he had been confined by Israel for nearly three years, until being airlifted to Paris for treatment last Friday.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Secretary-General of the PLO executive committee, chaired the meeting of a dozen members, but officials cautioned against reading that as a signal Abbas is ready to take over from Arafat.

"This is a normal meeting about the situation and about an action plan," in the Palestinian territories, said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian legislator. "I don't think we will have a political vacuum."

Erekat said it was one of the few times in decades that Arafat was not conducting the meeting.

Arafat's chair at the head of the conference table was left empty, with Abbas remaining in his usual seat to the right and Ahmed Qurei, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, on the left.

Committee member Ghasan Shaka'a said the meeting showed the Palestinian institutions were still functioning, and that even in his absence "Arafat exists among us. He is the base of our political system, and he is among us every single moment," Shaka'a said as he entered Arafat's gutted headquarters.

Last Sunday, Qurei convened the National Security Council, in charge of all the security forces in the West Bank and Gaza. Arafat normally chairs the NSC, but instructed Qurei to convene the council as usual in his absence, officials said.

Meanwhile Senior Palestinian and Israeli leaders held separate meetings last Sunday to plan a path forward in the absence of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who was in a French hospital with an unknown ailment.

Palestinian officials have been convening a series of top meetings in recent days to show that their institutions continue to function in Arafat's absence.

Senior intelligence officials and representatives from the foreign and defense ministries were briefing the Israeli Cabinet last Sunday on Arafat's health and the possible subsequent scenarios.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Israel's army would "demonstrate restraint" in military operations in the West Bank and Gaza until the Palestinian leadership situation became clear.

"These are days of waiting, and during such days you act perhaps with a bit more caution," Shalom told Army Radio before the weekly Cabinet meeting.

Meanwhile it has been announced by the Palestinian Presidential office that the wife the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques has contacted Soha Arafat the wife of President Yasser Arafat. Mrs Arafat has also received calls from the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his wife as well as from the Tunisian President Zein Al Abeddine Bin Ali and his wife.

Meanwhile Senior Palestinian officials convened meetings in the West Bank in response to the reports of the declining health of Mr. Arafat. The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, called a meeting of the security services in Ramallah.

Members of the central committee of Fatah, Mr. Arafat's power base in the Palestinian government, had held talks in the West Bank city of Ramallah to discuss the current situation with regard to his health, said an assistant deputy at the Palestinian information ministry, Mohammad Sulaiman, in a brief telephone interview.

"The Palestinian people here are very preoccupied with this," Mr. Sulaiman said. "Mr. Arafat is more than a political figure for them. He is a symbol for his people."

On the other hand at least four people were killed and 30 more were wounded by a bomber in an open-air market in the heart of Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv, medical and security sources said.

"We have identified five bodies. One of them belongs to a male bomber who appears to have acted alone," Tel Aviv police chief David Tzuri told a news conference.

Seven people were critically wounded in the explosion, he added. The blast ripped through the Hacarmel market in the center of the Mediterranean coastal city, an area dotted with bars and cafes. Police immediately sealed off the market for fear of a secondary explosion.

Most of the victims were rushed to hospital in Tel Aviv as fire-fighters rushed to control the blaze caused by the blast.

Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, it is the first such attack in more than two months, following twin suicide bus bombings in the southern city of Beersheva on Aug. 31 that killed 15 Israeli passengers. It is also the first attack since Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, accused by the Israelis of giving the green light to attacks by militants, was flown to Paris for treatment for what is believed to be a blood disorder.

There have been hopes that Arafat's departure from his West Bank headquarters on Friday could galvanize the peace process.

Israeli sources have said that the military planned to carry out only "limited" operations against Palestinians for the time being in order not to exacerbate tensions.

Arafat condemned the deadly bombing, his top aide Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP. Abu Rudeina told AFP that Arafat had asked him to condemn the attack on his behalf. "He noted that he has always been against attacks targeting civilians, whatever their nationality or religion," the aide said.

In Arafat's absence, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei has been placed in overall charge of the Palestinian Authority while former Premier Mahmoud Abbas is heading the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Arafat's dominant Fatah faction.

Palestinian officials in Paris voiced optimism about Arafat's health, saying there was "clear improvement" in his condition.

The frail 75-year-old Palestinian leader was undergoing a battery of tests at the Percy military hospital in the south-western Paris suburb of Clamart to determine the nature of what is believed to be a serious blood disorder. "There is a clear improvement," a senior official from the Palestinian delegation told AFP. "His condition is stable."

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told CNN that there are "no conditions" for Arafat's return, putting Israel's pledge on the record for the first time.

Sharon's government has shunned Arafat as a terrorist and has refused to meet with him. Saying the Palestinians had no leader interested in making peace, Sharon proposed his "unilateral disengagement" plan for leaving the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements with no input from the Palestinians.

Sharon told his Cabinet that Arafat's departure would not sway him from the plan, but he would not rule out new talks with an Arafat successor.

On the other hand Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh sent a letter to Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurea and leaders of the Palestinian parties urging them to stand firm and united amid the illness of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

In the message, President Saleh expressed concern over the health conditions of Arafat who is now undertaking medical check-ups in a military hospital in the Fench capital Paris.

"We received with a deep concern the news over health of my dear brother Arafat and I pray to God to help him to return home and continue his struggle with the Palestinian people," President Saleh said.

"I hope from all Palestinians that in such difficult conditions facing the Palestinian people to work hard to unify the Palestinian national front and enforce it for bolstering the Palestinian struggle."

Saleh also warned the Palestinians of "Israeli conspiracies aimed at disrupting the Palestinian unity through classifying Palestinians to extremists and moderates."

"There is no extremists except Sharon and his government," President Saleh said.

President Saleh affirmed the importance of the Palestinian unification, especially in this period, saying that Yemen would continue backing thePalestinian people until they get their state and gain their rights.

Another new UN report has accused Israel of severe human rights violations against Palestinians, including "wanton" destruction of infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

"(Israeli) Bulldozers have destroyed homes in a purposeless manner and have savagely dug up roads, including electricity, sewage and water lines," said UN special rapporteur John Dugard in his annual report on the human right situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The report, specifically lambasted the Israeli houses demolition policy in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

It estimated that at least "1,497 buildings have been demolished in Rafah, affecting over 15,000 people."

The UN report added: "Some of the destruction was for operational reasons. Often, however, the destruction is wanton."

In May, the Israeli occupation army flattened more than a hundred Palestinian houses in a two-day demolition spree in Rafah, driving over 1,000 Palestinians homeless.

"On entering the camp this morning, we found 88 buildings demolished which had housed 206 families. It affects 1,064 people," said UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman Paul McCann on May 15.

The report also criticizes Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip next year.

Israel's disengagement plan is designed to allow Israel to say that its occupation of Gaza is over, and it is no longer bound by terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention governing occupied territories but since Israel would retain control of border crossings and air space, it remains an occupier, the document said.

Dugard reported that the Apartheid Wall Israel is building on occupied Palestinian land only aims at incorporating the illegal Jewish settlements into the Jewish state and confiscate more Palestinian lands.

"The wall is responsible for much of the suffering of the Palestinian people," Dugard wrote in his annual report.

He scolded the Israeli government for spurning the ruling of the International Court of Justice to tear down the barrier, urging the ICJ to take action against Israel.

"This is no time for appeasement on the part of the international community," he said.

The ICJ, the United Nation's highest legal body, ruled on July 9 that the 700-kilometer (435-mile) wall violated international law.

In his 2003 report, Dugard dismissed the Wall as "illegal annexation" of Palestinian territory.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that with the completion of the Wall, 30 percent of the West Bank population, or some 680,000 people, will be "directly harmed."

The Palestine National Authority (PNA) says that 58 percent of the West Bank area would be confiscated when the Wall is completed.

Also United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, condemned the killing of Palestinian children by the Israeli occupation troops, particularity last week, Palestine News Agency (WAFA) reported.

Annan's spokesman, Frid Ekhart, was quoted by the United Nations website as saying " the Secretary General has been deeply concerned over the death of two Palestinian children due to the Israeli army operations in the occupied Palestinian territories over the past two days."

Ekhart confirmed that Mr. Annan is extremely concerned because the death of such children that way has been repetitive over the month of October 2004.

Rania Arram, 9 years-old Palestinian girl died last Thursday after being hit with an Israeli bullet, while on her way to school in the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Khan Younis, Ekhart hinted.

Early this week, mainly last Saturday, Mohammad Kamila, 12 years-old, of the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin, was also killed and two others were wounded by the Israeli bullets, the UN spokesman pointed out.

Mr. Ekhart further explained that "the Secretary General expects that the Israeli government opens a thorough investigation on the said events and that findings be made public."

On the other hand, Annan reiterated his call for the Israeli government to take all the necessary measures to avoid harming Palestinian civilians, particularly children.

In Cairo Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa held talks yesterday with US Ambassador in Cairo David Welch on the latest Palestinian, Iraqi and Sudanese conditions and arrangements for Sharm El-Sheikh international conference on Iraq.

Emerging from the meeting, Welch told reporters that they discussed different topics, not just the American policy but also the Arab and the League's policies.

He said that he discussed with Moussa the current situation between Palestinians and Israelis, Israel's plans for a unilateral disengagement from Gaza Strip and the US wish to revive the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks within the framework of the internationally-backed Roadmap Peace Plan.

He said that he also discussed with the AL Chief conditions in Iraq and the Egypt-hosted conference on Iraq, slated for later this month, and to be attended by Iraq, its neighbours and some other international parties such as the US.

The American diplomat said that he exchanged views with the Arab League Secretary General on the way to handle the Iraqi issue during the coming months and the post-US elections agenda for the coming months.

On the ongoing preparations for the conference on Iraq, he said that his country was invited to attend the gathering together with the rest of the G-8 of the world's major industrialized countries in addition to some governmental organizations and the Arab League. The conference is also to be attended by the Organization of Islamic Conference and China.

Also Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa has criticized Israel's talk about a post-Arafat era and rumours of differences among Palestinians over succeeding the ailing leader.

In press statements, Moussa said Arafat's era has not ended, adding that he shared prayers by Arabs and Palestinians for Arafat's recovery.

Speaking of Arafat as an obstacle to peace is a falsification of truth, Moussa said, adding that the Israeli policies were the real impediment to the peace process in the region.

The AL chief was following up the latest news of Arafat's health condition through direct contact with the Percy military hospital where he is being treated.