Newspaper
The Voice of the Interior
Cordoba,
Argentina, Friday October 29th, 2004
Section: Internationals
Interview with Suhail Hani Daher Akel Palestinian Ambassador in Argentina
Israel
and Sharon are responsible (view)
By: Soledad Baidacci
“Sharon should occupy himself on where is he going to be buried and not on where will be buried our president Yasser Arafat”, affirms the Ambassador of Palestine, Suhail Hani Daher Akel, who was yesterday in Cordoba and dialogued with the Voice of the Interior.
-Which is the current condition of the President Arafat?
-Fortunately, the president is overcoming the situation. We hope that he can do it and we consider that he is very conscious of all that is happening. We appreciate the offer of the French Government to hospitalize him in Paris. But the responsible of the deterioration of the health of the president Arafat are Israel and the government of Ariel Sharon; they have fenced militarily to the president since 1 December 2001 up to now. They have forbidden to the president Arafat all kind of mobilization, they prohibited him to make his presidential trips, to travel over his country, that is occupied by Israel; to go to the funeral of his sister in August 2003, to go to the Church of the Nativity to commemorate the Mass of the Rooster last December 2003, to do his routine checkups, they prohibited the entrance of his medicines. We are talking about a president who is Nobel Prize of the Peace, of somebody who is a main factor of the peace of the braves that he impelled and he carried on when he shook hands with our partner in the peace, Yitzhak Rabin. The government of Sharon is not foreign to the death of our partner in the peace, it has sought the death of our president Arafat and it has openly said that its intentions of killing him, it has not had chastity or ethics. This exceeds any agreement that we could have signed with the Israelis.
Walls
and demolitions
- Do you have certain indication of what is Arafat suffering?
-The president has had a stomach disorder, which became worse with a flu; besides he is a person that suffers Parkinson, although the illness is very controlled. But as result of his military fence, his health deteriorates even more, because he can not be assisted. The fact that a patient can not go to a hospital to be controlled means that they are letting him die and this openly implies a murder. This means that they are looking for the destruction of the Palestinian Leadership, subjecting to our people to a permanent occupation, to its eradication. This is also accompanied with the policy of Sharon that is seeking the unilateral withdrawal of Gaza, but not because he wants to grant freedom to the area. The Premier of Israel intends to provisionally withdraw to give place to thousand of refugees that he will send from the West Bank toward Gaza. We do not have to forget that in that area, Sharon is building a racist wall considered illegal by the International Court of Justice advisory opinion of July 2004 and that he was whipped by the United Nations with the vote of 150 countries, including Argentine, that call to put an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.
-There are several speculations about the ailments of Arafat. Israel even evaluates where it would authorize the funeral of the Palestinian president. What will happen with the Palestinian National Authority, if Arafat must be subjected to a long treatment?
-Sharon should occupy himself on where is he going to be buried and not on where will be buried our president Arafat, who is going to be successful and he is going to continue with his liberation plan. About the government, we are a democratic country and we have our Constitution; in case that the president Arafat has to be hospitalized, the president of the Palestine Legislative Council; Rawhi Fattuh, will take charge for 60 days. But the real concern is not about the Palestinian Leadership but about the Palestinian people, the leadership is being subjected by the Israeli Occupation and we are making international calls so that the international community acts in front of this situation of subjection to the president Arafat, the Palestinian leadership and people. Without a doubt this situation will shake the water of the extremists; Israel is interested in opening the doors of the extremism. For that reason it is permanently justifying its struggle against terrorism, when we are the victims of a terrorism of state of Israel and of the Israeli settlers.
-At this moment it is heard about a triumvirate in order to succeed Arafat. Is this certain?
-This is completely untrue. This is part of a fantasy of some journalist or of Israel, because beside, the policy of this country is to bring more tragedy and to confuse and worry more to the world.
-When you say that Israel is interested in the extremists, concretely. To whom do you refer?
To
the extremist of both sides. Do not forget that Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated
by an extremist of the Jewish right ...It can not be ignore the relation between
the health of Arafat and the last measures that Israel carried out in Palestine,
with dozens of deaths and of Palestinian houses demolished, and that he called
“ Days of penance”. I say that this have to do with the health
of the president because he is washing how his people is being demolished
and he, as president, can not do anything, because he is with his hands tied
and because he can not leave his presidency where he has been confined