What did Arafat die of?

As I watched today his funeral on TV and then went to see the protests after the Friday sermon at Al Azhar mosque (which were surprisingly small, but then again the mood of the day was sadness rather than anger), this question kept coming back: what is the cause of Arafat's death. As this story on the rumors that he was poisoned by the Israelis -- a rumor started by Hamas -- shows, we still don't know. I wouldn't give much credence to the poison theory, but I think we need to know what happened. Did they pull the plug on him? Who made that decision? Or was it simply the result of the brain hemorrhage he was suffering from? If these questions aren't answer, the rumors are just going to keep spreading.

Comments

[button]

I got the impression it was a brain tumour, but they didn't want to disclose it because they were afraid it might call into question his sanity. Just a possibility.

[Issandr El Amrani]

Perhaps. But I still don't think anything official was put out. Now, in addition to the rumors that he died of poisoning, there are some Israeli rumors that he died of AIDS. What puzzles me is that no one is producing the doctors' diagnosis.

[the_dream_taker]

Despite the fact that arafat is a freedom fighter, I still think that he has built an authority full of corruption and chaos. I think that has either died of AIDS or he has just been poisned. Both suggestions are possible, therefore I do neither expect the palestinian authority nor his wife to declare his death. His death would remain a secret forever and ever.

[DJ_Dalton]

The suggestion that Arafat died from AID's is rumored to have been started by Israel. Arafat was not isolated before he fell ill. There were many people in contact with him. Pictures from that time certainly don't look to be of a man in the terminal stages of aids. No complete wasting, no visible lessions. My personal opinion is that AID's probably didn't kill Arafat even if he was HIV positive.

For a period of months before he died Israel was claiming a right to kill Arafat. To my mind that is the best evidence regarding what happened to him until a cause of death is released or accurately determined. If Israel did indeed start the AID's speculation (Israel has a long history of dirty tricks) it would appear to me at least to be cover for finding a way to remove Arafat who they believed to be an impediment. If a nation is willing to use missiles to kill a wheelchair bound invalid and scores of civilians around him, finding a way to kill another man they view as an enemy is par for the course.