Palestinians to open new probe on Arafat's death

A foundation devoted to the memory of veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said on Monday it will open a new investigation into his mysterious death in 2004.

"The committee will include Arab doctors responsible for Arafat’s health before he was moved to Paris and a number of political officials," Nasser al-Qidwa, Arafat's nephew who heads the foundation, told reporters.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner who led the struggle for Palestinian statehood for nearly four decades died in a French military hospital on Nov. 11, 2004 after being airlifted there from his headquarters in Ramallah.

That report repeated previous assessments that Arafat's death on November 11, 2004 "resulted from a severe hemorrhaging of the brain."

But it added that Arafat's "clinical state presented several symptoms which could not be explained in the framework of Arafat's death: infection from a germ that poisoned the blood, AIDS or poisoning.

The new investigation is part of a larger effort to preserve Arafat’s memory. The foundation has launched a website at www.yasserarafat.ps with photos, articles, and a "panorama" tour of Arafat's modest home and office.

Palestinians credit their late leader with catapulting their cause onto the world stage and leading them through decades of war and political strife.

Israel, which besieged Arafat's headquarters for the last three years of his life, branded him a terrorist for most of his life and blamed him for the intifada which erupted in 2000, shattering the Oslo autonomy accords.

The committee will include Arab doctors responsible for Arafat’s health before he was moved to Paris and a number of political officials

Nasser al-Qidwa, Arafat\\\\\\\'s nephew