Farouk Qaddoumi’s bombshell allegation that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was involved in a plot to assassinate Yasser Arafat is so outrageous that it deserves to be taken seriously! Arafat died in a Paris hospital on Nov. 11, 2004, after a sudden and brief illness with mysterious symptoms. From the onset there were cries of conspiracy and foul play, all pointing toward Israel. Official inquiries were inconclusive as to the cause of death and to this day the full content of the French medical report on Arafat’s illness and death remain classified.
Qaddoumi, the most senior PLO official after Abbas and the second-highest ranking Fatah leader, has never embraced the Olso peace process, and after Arafat’s death had become estranged from the more moderate, pro-US, Palestinian leadership that took over in Ramallah. He enjoys little political latitude but had kept his channels open with opposing Palestinian factions based in Damascus.
His recent accusations, which he said were based on minutes of a secret meeting that took place in November 2004 involving former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President Abbas, former Gaza strongman Mohammed Dahlan as well as a number of CIA officials and US Undersecretary of State William Burns, had shocked Palestinians and added fuel to bitter inter-Palestinian fighting.
Abbas, on his part, has dismissed the allegations and accused Qaddoumi of plotting to derail Fatah’s Sixth Party Congress, which is due to be held in Bethlehem on Aug. 4. The Palestinian Authority was so outraged by Al Jazeera’s reporting of the Qaddoumi affair that it closed the network’s West Bank office indefinitely.
Responding to Qaddoumi’s accusations, Abbas raised a valid question: Why did Qaddoumi remain silent for this long? It is a good question to which no satisfactory answer had been provided. Qaddoumi, who made these revelations public while on a private visit to the Jordanian capital Amman, said he wanted to warn Fatah and PLO officials of the threats they face. But that’s a lame excuse. The mysterious demise of Arafat deserved to be investigated fully and openly, and if a senior PLO aide had such hair-raising information he should have made them public much earlier. One thing that Qaddoumi had successfully achieved is to weaken an already divided Fatah. Even if his accusations go nowhere he has further undermined Abbas’ authority. By choosing to come out now with such devastating charges he has helped Israel benefit from Arafat’s death — twice!
If the Fatah Congress is held in August it will be over 20 years late. Since 1989, the largest of Palestinian groups has been divided on the very same issue that divides the PLO and other Palestinian groups today; negotiations with Israel. Arafat was able to hold the Palestinian national movement together, but his successor had no such luck. Today the odds of Abbas succeeding in mending Palestinian divisions or those tearing down his own party look pretty slim.
On the other hand, the accusations against Abbas and other senior aides are serious and warrant a responsible and transparent investigation. Arafat’s death was timely for Israel and the United States and it ushered in a new game plan for dealing with the Palestinian issue. His removal from the scene was expressed on more than one occasion by senior US and Israeli officials. If a conspiracy, with Palestinian involvement, did exist, the Palestinian people among others deserve to know.
Israel's hands are not entirely clean of Palestinian blood. Throughout its history Israel had been involved in both covert and explicit liquidations of Palestinian leaders. Aside from direct bombings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad figures in Gaza over the past two decades, the Israeli Mossad had been implicated in assassination attempts most notably against current Hamas leader Khaled Mishaal in Amman in 1997.
To imagine that Arafat was possibly a victim of a deliberate plot to kill him while he was under siege in his Ramallah compound is not so far-fetched. To believe that he had become a legitimate target of the Mossad and the CIA is not unrealistic. But to accuse two very senior Arafat associates, both from Fatah, of collaborating with the enemy, is shocking and terrifying.
One part of the jigsaw puzzle fits conveniently. Dahlan has proven to be a shadowy character with questionable ties to both Israel and the Americans. His relations to Gen. Keith Dayton and his role in the plot to take over Gaza are now a matter of public record, thanks to documents seized by Hamas in 2007. But Abbas, a man hand-picked by Arafat himself as a likely successor, is another matter.
Like Qaddoumi, Abbas is a bureaucrat and politician who lacks charisma and public appeal. The former is an old-school dogmatist while the latter is a pragmatist and a moderate who had helped achieve the Oslo breakthrough. If Qaddoumi’s move is in fact an attempt to jockey for power, it will most likely fizzle out. Neither the US nor the Israelis will recognize him, but most importantly he does not have the resources to topple Abbas and unite a fatigued Fatah. On the other hand Abbas is so wounded now that all he can hope for is to stay on top for few more months. As the Palestinian reconciliation process fumbles again, Hamas is looking better, if not as the most suitable alternative then as the most convenient in the interim stage. The possible killing of Arafat will remain a mystery for some time while the new accusations had only succeeded in adding a deeper dent into the dilapidated armor of Palestinian unity.
— Osama Al Sharif is a veteran journalist and commentator based in Amman.
