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| File photo of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at a Palestinian
police march in Gaza, July 8, 2000 to celebrate the sixth anniversary of
his return to the Palestinian self rule area in 1994 and the founding of
the Palestinian police. [Reuters] |
A swirl of reports saying Arafat had died Thursday
were quashed by doctors at the French military hospital where he has been
treated since being airlifted to France last week. Arafat's aides, however,
acknowledged his condition was very serious.
On Friday, Israel's Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said Arafat was being kept
alive artificially, but the source of his information was not clear.
"We all know that clinically he's dead but we won't interfere with internal
Palestinian affairs. They'll announce his death when they find it proper," he
told Associated Press Television News.
A Palestinian spokeswoman denied Lapid's assertion.
"He is in a coma. We don't know the type but it's a reversible coma," Leila
Shahid, the Palestinian envoy to France, told French RTL radio.
Shahid suggested the coma occurred after Arafat was put under anesthesia for
medical tests including an endoscopy, colonoscopy and a biopsy of the spinal
cord. She said doctors do not yet have a diagnosis.
"Today we can say that, given his condition and age, he is at a critical
point between life and death," she said. "All vital organs are functioning. This
is why all the doctors say that he could or could not wake up."
Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia received greater authority to deal with urgent
financial matters, said PLO executive committee member Qais Abdel Karim.
Palestinian leaders huddled all day Thursday in urgent meetings.
Qureia will meet with security chiefs in the Gaza Strip on Friday to ensure
no internal conflict erupts in the volatile territory, a Palestinian official
said on condition of anonymity.
Outside the hospital, some 50 well-wishers held a vigil into the early
morning hours Friday. Some held candles, others Arafat portraits; a large
Palestinian flag hung from the hospital's outer wall.
"It tears your heart up," said Mahmod Nimr, 36, an unemployed Palestinian by
the main gate of the hospital. "I can't see someone taking his place."
On a day of high drama, there were persistent and contradictory reports about
Arafat's condition. Luxembourg's prime minister announced at a summit of
European leaders in Brussels Thursday that Arafat had died, but his spokesman
later said it had been a "misunderstanding."
Shahid's comments echo those of a Palestinian official in Gaza who is close
to Arafat's wife, Suha. He told The Associated Press on Thursday that Suha
Arafat told him her husband became unconscious after receiving a strong
anesthetic for a biopsy. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
quoted her as saying Arafat was recovering.
Doctors have determined Arafat does not have stomach cancer, Shahid said.
Earlier this week, hospital officials said initial tests had ruled out leukemia.
![Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his wife Suha hold hands prior to Arafat's departure from his compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah in this picture released by the Palestinian Authority Friday Oct. 29, 2004. [AP]](xin_25100130090107824374.jpg)
Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat and his wife Suha hold hands prior to Arafat's departure
from his compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah in this picture
released by the Palestinian Authority Friday Oct. 29, 2004.
[AP] |
Contradicting reports that Arafat was brain dead, the Palestinian leader's
personal physician, Dr. Ashraf Kurdi, said a brain scan showed Arafat had not
suffered a hemorrhage or stroke, and "has no type of brain death."
Brain death occurs when the brain stops working, making it impossible for the
body to maintain its own vital functions. It is irreversible, though patients
can sometimes be kept alive by machines.
French television station LCI quoted an anonymous French medical official as
saying Arafat was in an "irreversible coma" and "intubated" — a process that
involves threading a tube down the windpipe to the lungs to connect it to a
life-support machine to help the patient breathe.
To be on life support, a patient must be unconscious, but not necessarily
brain dead or even in a coma.
Palestinian leaders held an emergency meeting in the West Bank, and Foreign
Minister Nabil Shaath said top officials were in touch with Arafat's hospital
every 30 minutes.
"The Palestinian leadership is in constant meeting to follow up on the
president's health," Shaath said from Ramallah, where leaders of the PLO and
Arafat's Fatah movement were meeting.
A prolonged Arafat incapacitation — or death — could have profound impact on
the Middle East. There are fears of unrest among Palestinian factions, which
Arafat, viewed as a national symbol by even some who opposed him, was largely
able to prevent. Chaos in the West Bank and Gaza could make any cooperation with
Israel even more difficult.
On the other hand, Israel and the United States have in recent years shunned
Arafat as a terrorist and an obstacle to peace, and his replacement by a new
leadership could open the door to renewed peace talks. Such a scenario could
affect Israel's current plans to pull soldiers and settlers out of the Gaza
Strip in a unilateral move not coordinated with the Palestinians.
The Israeli army, which is on high alert, has a plan to deal with the fallout
from Arafat's death, including possible Palestinian riots.
An Israeli Cabinet official on Friday said Israel would allow Arafat to be
buried in the Gaza Strip but again ruled out the possibility of Jerusalem.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he would not permit Arafat to be
buried in the city, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as their
capital. Burial in Jerusalem would be seen as strengthening Palestinian claims
to the traditionally Arab sector of the city as a future capital.
Army chiefs say they are opposed to Arafat's burial in Jerusalem or the
nearby suburb of Abu Dis in the West Bank. Arafat's family has a plot in the
Gaza Strip.
