Palestinian factions jockey in leader's absence

By Ed O'Loughlin

November 8, 2004

The main Palestinian political factions are jockeying over influence and policy as Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat remains in critical condition in a French military hospital.

Amid rumours that Mr Arafat is dying or already brain dead, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie travelled to Gaza at the weekend to chair a rare meeting of all 13 main Palestinian factions, including the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

According to media reports, Mr Qurie asked the factions to show national unity and halt attacks on Israeli targets so there might be a period of military calm to ease the internal Palestinian political crisis.

But while representatives of the Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement) endorsed the call for national unity they rejected the idea of a one-sided ceasefire. "The resistance continues and will stop only if the occupation ends," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

"This time is very sensitive. It's a historic time. There is no space for any unilateral decisions."

The leader of Hamas in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, dismissed the suggestion that militants should ease the establishment of a new moderate Palestinian leadership. "We will not accept a leadership that is brought by Israeli tanks," he told a rally in south Beirut.

In the US, officials said the peace process would be discussed in a series of meetings with European and Arab leaders this month.

While Mr Arafat was being treated under tight secrecy, rumours continued to swirl about the true state of his health.

The most popular is that he is already effectively dead but that he is being maintained on life support at the orders of his aides or his wife, Suha, who seems to be controlling access to the unit where he is held.

Mr Arafat's aides and his French military doctors are releasing only vague information about his condition. In the latest update long-term aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh contradicted previous Palestinian comments that Mr Arafat was in a coma. "He (Mr Arafat) is not in a coma," he said.

Over the weekend, a French newspaper reported that crucial tests to establish whether Mr Arafat was brain dead had not been carried out, leading to claims that doctors were under pressure to delay tests to determine his condition.

Last week aides rejected media reports that Mr Arafat had delegated power to a triumvirate of Palestinian officials, including Ahmed Qurie and acting PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Amid conflicting reports of Mr Arafat's health, there were rumours on the West Bank that he was being kept alive only so that a vast hidden fortune in his control could be recovered.

There also was speculation that Mr Arafat was clinically dead but being kept on life support to ease the transition.

Mr Arafat's funeral is shaping up to be a source of contention, with Israel signalling it will not allow him to be buried in or near Jerusalem.

Mr Arafat reportedly told aides that he wanted to be buried in Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, which is on a spot that is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

Israeli ministers say that instead they will permit him to be buried in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli-controlled enclave of 1.3 million Palestinians on the border with Egypt.

- with agencies