Arafat poisoning probe: Mixed reaction in Palestine

NABLUS: News that France had opened an inquiry into the death of the late Yasser Arafat was welcomed by many Palestinians yesterday, but for others it was too little, too late.
“Showing the truth and unraveling the mystery surrounding this case is extremely important to the Palestinian people and the French judiciary is known for its integrity,” Khaled Khana, a civil servant from the southern West Bank city of Hebron, told AFP.
Maysoon Al-Qawasmi, a women’s rights activist in Hebron, said: “Despite the fact that this is late, it is very important and proves that international law is still alive and that the statute of limitations (on such a crime) doesn’t expire. We hope the truth will be exposed.”
In the Gaza Strip, residents welcomed the move, with 19-year-old business student Hanaa Ayad saying it could expose those behind the death of Arafat, popularly known as Abu Ammar.
“As a Palestinian, I would like to know the truth about the death of our leader Abu Ammar after all these years. I am sure Israel is behind this by either putting poison in his food or his clothes,” she told AFP.
For Ahmed Ibrahim, who sells mobile phones in Gaza City, if an investigation proved that Israel was responsible for poisoning Arafat, it would be tantamount to a declaration of war.
The Swiss experts who discovered the polonium on Arafat’s effects have confirmed they will carry out a fact-finding mission in Ramallah to assess the viability of exhuming and testing his remains.
But not everyone was overjoyed about the move, which some said was long overdue.
Some were unhappy that the investigation was to be run by Paris, with 37-year-old maths teacher Hassan Jamal saying France had already blotted its copybook by “hiding the truth” about the leader’s death back in 2004.