France: Arafat was born in Jerusalem
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Nov. 26, 2004
jpost.com
Israel's ambassador to France has criticized the French government for issuing a death certificate for deceased Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat stating his place of birth as Jerusalem.
"I cannot understand how the French government agreed to issue a death certificate based on false information," ambassador Nissim Zvili told a press conference in Montpellier, AFP reported.
Municipal officials at Clamart, the suburb of Paris where Arafat died on November 11, said they issued the document on the basis of a family record book itself issued by the French foreign ministry in 1996.
Arafat was born Mohammed Abdel-Rawf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Hussaini, on August 4, 1929.
The official version of his life history records he was born in Jerusalem. However numerous biographers agree that he was, in fact, born in Cairo, where his father, from Gaza, owned a business.
French officials, citing privacy laws, still refuse to reveal the precise cause of death or the nature of his condition, leading to rumors - strongly denied by Palestinian officials - of poisoning.
AFP reported Zvili as saying the affair was "very badly perceived in Israel", adding that those responsible for issuing the "false document" could be subject to a legal process.
"I don't understand how when Arafat arrived in France he had been born in Cairo and when he left France he had been born in Jerusalem," he said.
He also dismissed speculation that Arafat had been poisoned.
"There was a poisoning, but it wasn't of Arafat, but of public opinion in France, in Arab countries and among the Palestinian people," he said.
Zvili was taking part in a round table discussion on Israel in Montpellier. |
