From DAVID DOLAN:

JERUSALEM 10:00 PM

 
Although Palestinian officials told local and international media outlets to expect a death announcement for Yasser Arafat around noon today, it never came.  Instead, he is said to be still barely clinging to life, despite total kidney and liver failure and bleeding in his brain.  Given his grave condition, an announcement is likely sometime tomorrow—expected to be made by acting PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas. He is one of several officials who traveled to Paris late Monday to check on Arafat’s condition.  Meanwhile the Palestinian representative to France attacked Israel’s media and government tonight for supposedly deliberately spreading false rumors about Arafat’s conditions.  Officials and media spokesmen here say the truth is that the dearth of factual information from the hospital until yesterday—at Suha Arafat’s insistence—was the trigger for a spate of rumors and inaccurate claims in Israel and abroad, many of them fed by partially informed Palestinian sources.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened his inner security cabinet this morning to discuss the situation, especially the announced Palestinian decision to bury Arafat in his Ramallah Muqata compound, just a few miles north of Jerusalem.  Media reports earlier said the funeral would take place on Friday, with a memorial ceremony to be held first in Cairo, attended by international leaders. But now it looks like Saturday will be the earliest date for the burial, since some world leaders who wish to attend the Cairo ceremony have been promised a 48 hour notice.

 

Although the Sharon government has agreed to a Ramallah burial site, some Israeli cabinet ministers were said to be strongly against this, fearing the mass funeral could easily turn violent.  Most still prefer a Gaza Strip interment.  The ministers believe a Ramallah burial will strengthen Palestinian claims to the nearby holy city.  In fact, Palestinian officials insist the Ramallah site will only be “temporary,” with Arafat’s body eventually moved to the Temple Mount.  Apparently, this will be after the Palestinians fulfill Arafat’s oft-stated pledge—which he made with Saddam Hussein at his side, among many others—to crush detested Israeli rule in the historic city and “plant the Palestinian flag on every mosque and church steeple, and on all the walls” of the Old City.

 

Given the sudden verbal stress by Palestinian leaders on Jerusalem, security commanders remain quite concerned that violent attempts might be made during the funeral to parade Arafat’s corpse through security barriers to the Temple Mount. Security remains extremely tight around the Old City and in other areas this evening.  Several violent incidents were reported last night, including the stoning by Arab youths of an Israeli police station in eastern Jerusalem.  Police on horseback chased away the attackers. To cope with rising tensions surrounding Arafat’s imminent passing, all Israeli police and army leave has been cancelled. Israeli air force jets have been buzzing the skies for the past 24 hours, apparently on a heightened state of alert.  Regional concerns center on Iran’s potential to milk the expected strong emotions aroused by Arafat’s death to stir up trouble along Israel’s northern border, and/or to sponsor Islamic terror attacks inside Israeli cities.

 

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DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and journalist who has lived in Israel since 1980.

 

til that BLESSED time,

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