Breaking: Top Palestinian Officials Call off Trip to Paris After Comments by Arafat's Wife, Spokesman Says
By Mark Lavie
Associated Press Writer
Nov 8, 2004
JERUSALEM (AP) - Palestinian leaders abruptly called off a visit to Yasser Arafat's bedside on Monday after the ailing leader's wife accused them of trying to depose her husband.
Suha Arafat's comments and the angry response of the Palestinian caretaker leaders in the West Bank were the first signs of an open power struggle as Arafat clung to life in a Paris hospital.
Mrs. Arafat is one of three people to see him and has tightly controlled any information on his condition.
The current caretaker leaders, Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath had been scheduled to travel to France on Monday.
But early in the day, in a screaming telephone call from Arafat's bedside, Mrs. Arafat said her husband was "all right" and accused his top aides of coming to Paris to oust Arafat.
"You have to realize the size of the conspiracy. I tell you they are trying to bury Abu Ammar alive," she told Al-Jazeera television in a telephone call, using Arafat's nom de guerre. It was her first public comment since Arafat was hospitalized.
Tayeb Abdel Rahim, a senior Arafat aide, said the Palestinian officials postponed their trip to protest her comments. "They are angry with Suha and don't want to go," he said at a news conference in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
"What came from Suha doesn't represent our people," he said. "If the president were to hear that, he would reject it completely."
He said Mrs. Arafat "wanted to destroy the Palestinian leadership's decision and to be the lone decision-maker."
Qureia and Abbas - Arafat's deputy in the Palestine Liberation Organization - have been working together to run Palestinian affairs in Arafat's absence and to prevent chaos and violence if the Palestinian leader dies. Qureia has taken on some of Arafat's executive and security powers, while Abbas has been chairing meetings of the PLO's executive body.
Mrs. Arafat, who lives in Paris and had not seen her husband for more than three years, has controlled the flow of information over his illness and has kept all but a handful of Palestinians away from his bedside - arousing resentment back home.
She also is widely believed to have control of vast amounts of PLO money.
"She is not part of the Palestinian leadership," Arafat security adviser Jibril Rajoub told Israel's Channel Two TV on Sunday.
Arafat's illness remained a mystery Sunday, his fifth day in intensive care at a French military hospital amid contradictory reports on whether he is in a coma. French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier would say only that he is alive, though his condition is "very complex, very serious and stable."
Arafat's death and burial are potentially explosive issues.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday that the military is preparing for possible violence in the event of his death and would send in reinforcements, according to security officials.
Palestinians officials say Arafat has expressed a wish to be buried at a hotly disputed holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem, where the Al Aqsa Mosque compound lies on top of the ruins of the biblical Jewish temples. The site, revered by Muslims and Jews, is claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians, and disputes over its fate have torpedoed several peace efforts.
Israel opposes an Arafat burial anywhere in Jerusalem, fearing it would reinforce the Palestinian claim to the eastern part of the city and become a pilgrimage site.
Mofaz told the Cabinet that Israeli security officials have completed preparations for Arafat to be buried in the Gaza Strip, where his family has a cemetery plot, according to participants at the meeting.
Israel expects many dignitaries to attend the funeral. Those from nations with diplomatic relations with Israel would be transported to Gaza from Israel, those from countries hostile to Israel could fly from Jordan to Gaza through Israeli airspace, security officials said on condition of anonymity. Palestinians in the West Bank could be bused through Israel to Gaza.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat criticized the Israeli plan in principle.
"I think it's inappropriate to speak about burying people when they're still alive," Erekat said. "I urge the Israelis to show some sensitivity."
Arafat's clan, the Al-Kidwas, is originally from Gaza, though the Palestinian leader grew up in Jerusalem and Cairo. The family has a small plot of 25 to 30 graves in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. The overgrown patch is in the middle of a busy vegetable market and would not be considered appropriate.
Other burial options include a seaside plot next to his old headquarters in Gaza City, or Gaza City's "martyrs' cemetery" east of the city, close to Israel.
Meanwhile, Palestinian officials continued working on plans for governing in Arafat's absence.
The Palestinian National Security Council, temporarily headed by Qureia, approved the premier's plan for internal security Sunday, according to Palestinian officials. No details of the plan were available. In recent days, Qureia has assumed some emergency financial and administrative powers that Arafat would normally wield.
Abbas, considered a more likely successor, has chaired a series of meetings of the PLO executive committee in Arafat's absence in an effort to project unity among Palestinian leaders.
But neither politician has much grassroots support.
Four masked gunmen from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent offshoot of Arafat's Fatah movement, distributed a leaflet in Ramallah saying Arafat is their only commander, and the only acceptable successor would be West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in an Israeli prison.
In violence Sunday, Israeli undercover forces killed four Palestinians in the West Bank city of Jenin, Palestinians said. The military said the four opened fire during an arrest operation.
AP-ES-11-08-04 0235EST
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