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Nov. 4, 2004 19:18 | Updated Nov. 5, 2004 10:07
Police brace for burial march to J'lem
By YAAKOV KATZ

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Israel is prepared for a variety of scenarios following Yasser Arafat's demise including the possibility that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians will march their leader's body to the Temple Mount for burial, senior police
officers said Thursday night.

The officers downplayed warnings by Palestinian officials who said that if Israel refuses to allow Arafat to be buried on the compound, Palestinians will carry his body from Ramallah to Jerusalem to forcibly bury him there.

"This is not a question that is up to the Israelis and Sharon to decide," Wakf director Adnan Husseini, in charge of the holy Muslim sites on the Temple Mount, told The Jerusalem Post Thursday. "Israel should not be involved in the decision since if they are then Palestinians may decide to do the opposite and bring his body en mass to Jerusalem for burial."

"The question of where Arafat will be buried is up to the Palestinian people and it is a question of Islamic law," he added. "Israel needs to remember that Jerusalem is not an Israeli city but it is a Palestinian city and we decide what happens here."

Police rejected the threats confirming that they are prepared for all possible scenarios.

"We are prepared for all different kinds of scenarios that may happen following Arafat's death including an attempt to carry his body to Jerusalem for burial," said one senior officer, involved in planning for the day-after Arafat.

On Sunday, Sharon told the cabinet that under his watch Arafat will not be allowed to be buried in Jerusalem. Media reports Thursday night indicated
that Israel, if asked by the Palestinians, will only allow for Arafat's burial in the Gaza Strip.

In July, an official defense establishment report was leaked to the press detailing Israeli reactions to Arafat's death. One of the issues dealt with in the report was his desire to be buried on the Temple Mount. The report
recommended burying Arafat in the Palestinian town of Abu Dis overlooking the holy disputed site, in order to avoid confrontations with Palestinian masses.

The last Palestinian to be buried on the Temple Mount was Faisal Husseini, the former PLO representative in Jerusalem, who died of a heart attack in 2001. Husseini was buried at the site despite fierce opposition from some Palestinians, who said the privilege should be reserved only to devout Muslim figures. Police noted however that in Husseni's case, Palestinians received official permission to hold the funeral on the compound.

Meanwhile Thursday, police raised the level of alert following reports that Arafat may have died. Police also pulled out their day-after plan, called "A different reality," which lays out the different scenarios that may happen
after Arafat's demise. Once there is an official statement that Arafat is dead, police said, they will raise the alert to level three of four.

Hearing of the sharp deterioration in Arafat's condition, head of the Prisons Service Yaakov Ganot ordered to beef up security and raise the alert in prisons throughout the country.

Ganot instructed intelligence officers to carefully monitor the some 4,000 Palestinian security prisoners incarcerated in Israel and in the event of Arafat's death to allow them to mourn the Palestinian leader.

In March, Arafat had asked his supporters to look into burying him on the Mount. At the time, Muslim groups distributed leaflets against Arafat's plan. Referring to Arafat, the leaflet said: "We warn this wicked infidel, who married a Christian infidel, against contemplating desecrating the holy Aksa Mosque."

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