Arab doctors to meet in Jordan to probe allegations Arafat poisoned

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Nearly five years after former Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat died by what French doctors called a massive brain hemorrhage, Arab doctors will meet in Jordan to probe rumors Arafat was poisoned - a suspicion that has lingered years after his death. Arafat's death November 11, 2004 at a military hospital outside of Paris almost immediately spawned speculation he'd been killed by Israel who viewed him as an obstacle to concluding a peace treaty. The 75-year-old Arafat who led the Palestinian movement for almost 40 years fell violently ill in his Ramallah compound in October 2004 and two weeks later was evacuated to a French hospital where he died. At the time, French doctors bound by strict privacy rules were tight-lipped on Arafat's condition, and his widow refused an autopsy. Adding to the speculation, Palestinian leaders have never given a definitive cause of Arafat's death.