his burial to take place at his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, after Palestinian officials admitted the Palestinian leader had gone "into a deeper coma."
"Following the request of the Palestinian Authority, and taking into account the recommendation of the security bodies…it is our intention to allow the funeral and burial in Ramallah…" the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement send to BosNewsLife.
"Israel is interested in having the burial ceremony and funeral arrangements take place in an orderly fashion, in order to avoid confrontations or unnecessary escalation," the Office added. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has refused to allow a funeral in Jerusalem, which Jews and Palestinians both claim as their capital.
PALESTINIAN SECURITY
His office suggested that although "the responsibility for maintaining security and public order in Ramallah" during and after the funeral "falls on the Palestinians", the Israeli army and other security forces would be on high alert.
The announcement came as a top Islamic cleric rushed from the West Bank rushed to Arafat’s bedside Wednesday, November 10 in what an aide reportedly called the "final phase" of the Palestinian leader’s life.
"I’m here to be by my longtime friend’s side in his time of need and to pray for his speedy recovery," the cleric, Taisser Bayoud Tamimi, told The Associated Press (AP) news agency by phone shortly before arriving at the Percy Military Training Hospital near Paris.
LIFE SUPPORT
When asked by reporters outside the hospital if Arafat’s life support would be turned off, Tamimi, who heads the Islamic court in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, shouted, "It’s absolutely rejected!" He said life-support systems would remain on as long as there were signs of life, AP reported.
But aides were quoted as saying that Arafat’s health was deteriorating, with a "complication" to his vital organs as doctors struggled to stop bleeding in his brain. Although Arafat has been comatose for a week, the Palestinian Foreign Minister, Nabil Shaath, ruled out any suggestion of taking him off life support.
"He will live or die depending on his body’s ability to resist and on the will of God," Shaath told reporters.
Although he refused to comment on funeral arrangements as "he is very much alive", other Palestinian officials reportedly burst into tears when they announced that Arafat would be buried in Ramallah, in the half-destroyed headquarters compound where he defied the Israeli army and spent the last three years of his life under virtual military siege.
The officials hope the burial will follow an impressive state funeral in Cairo, Egypt, news reports said.
MANY POSTERS
In the West Bank, Palestinians tried to come to terms with the frail health of what some view as the most significant Arab leader in the last four decades. The Abu Ghosh printing house in Ramallah received an urgent order early Tuesday, November 9, from the Palestine Liberation Organization’s public affairs office to print 10,000 large posters.
Above the simple script "Yasser Arafat: The president, the leader," a photo of the ailing Palestinian Authority head stared defiantly out over Ramallah for the last time, the San Fransisco Chronicle newspaper’s Internet website reported.
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