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You know you just can't make this stuff up...

Legacy of chaos in dying hours of Arafat era

As doctors battled to find out what caused a sudden deterioration in his health, his political and personal affairs were in a mess. He left no obvious successor and the power vacuum threatens to give Islamic militants the upper hand in Palestine.

Even the details of funeral arrangements are the subject of bitter backroom disputes between the Palestinian authorities and the Israelis. Who should be invited to the funeral and, most sensitively, where he would be buried are all hotly disputed?

The Palestinian leadership last night put pressure on radical militant groups in Gaza to agree to a declaration of unity. Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia met some 13 factions including Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Ramallah seeking an agreement not to create civil disorder as the leadership confronts one of its biggest crises in years.

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Achieving that would cast doubt on diplomacy with Israel and its US ally, given that the militants seek the eventual destruction of the Jewish state.

Sami Abu Zuhri of the militant group Hamas said: "Our demand is to form a unified leadership. Under the circumstances and deterioration in the condition of Mr Yasser Arafat, certainly this demand has become more urgent and more important.

"There is no room to talk about stopping any form of resistance against the enemy as long as the occupation and aggression continue."

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With Sharon refusing outright to allow Arafat to be buried in Jerusalem, the pressure is on to solve the issue quickly since under Islamic law, once a person dies, he must be buried within 24 hours.

As well, with a number of world leaders expected to attend a funeral, including those from countries with no diplomatic relations with Israel, Israeli officials are all the more determined that the Palestinian leader be buried elsewhere, preferably at a family burial plot in the Gaza town of Khan Yunis where his sister is buried.

"They [the Palestinians] will choose where to bury him, but he will not be buried in Jerusalem because Jerusalem is the city where Jewish kings are buried and not Arab terrorists," Israeli justice minister Yosef Lapid said.

But, according to Ikrema Sabrisaid, the most senior Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, Arafat had told him during a meeting four months ago that his wish was to be buried "in a place that is close to the Al Aqsa Mosque".

Located in central Jerusalem, on the sacred hill known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Christians and Jews as the Temple Mount, the Al Aqsa compound is Islam’s third holiest shrine. The Temple Mount is revered by Jews as the site of the biblical Jewish temples.

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1286622004