La Vie de Arafat
The French authorities suppressed the cause of Arafat's death, as they are allowed to do, but falsified another part of the official death certificate.
Sammy Ghozlan, President of the Jewish Community Council of Seine Saint Denis, near Paris, issued a statement noting that the official announcement of Arafat's death, published in the daily le Parisien on November 12, 2004, lists Arafat's birthplace as Jerusalem. The announcement was, reportedly, based on the death certificate filed the day before in Clamart, the city in which Arafat died.
Arafat, in fact, was born in Cairo, Egypt, as his published birth certificate, his official biography, his Nobel prize biographical statement, and other independent sources attest. Palestinian mythology seeks to suppress this fact and invent the myth that he was not a foreigner but a Jerusalem native.
One can wonder why Israeli authorities were not quick to seize on the secret diagnosis to harm their former enemy's reputation by making public the accusation he died from AIDS, but there are theories about a deal.
Israeli sources suggest that a quiet deal was made in which Israel would not reveal Arafat's HIV/AIDs illness -- reportedly well-known in intelligence circles -- in exchange for Palestinian officials scotching claims of poisoning.
Fair enough. Any attempt to hurt Arafat's legacy with AIDS could hardly fail to sound homophobic (though, as noted, straight people also get AIDS), and the Palestinians and Arabs generally will believe whatever they want anyway. The "poisoned" story will probably never go away.
Also in France, several municipalities ruled by left-wing local governments consider naming a street after Yasser Arafat.
Let's hope, at least, they give his name to a long, bumpy road going nowhere.
9:54:25 PM 
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