User:Palestine-info/Arafat

During Arafat's last hours in life a controversy erupted over where he should be bruied. Arafat wished to the buried in Jerusalem's old city, but that was not acceptable to Israel, which considers Jerusalem to be the "eternal and undivisible capital of Israel" and Arafat to be a terrorist. Israel's justice minister, Yosef Lapid, said: "Arafat won't be buried in Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is the city where Jewish kings are buried and not Arab terrorists." Israel was also concerned about security issues and that burying Arafat in Jerusalem could be interpreted as recognition that Palestinians have political rights to the city. Israel's favoured burial place was Arafat's family plot in Khan Younis mainly because of Gaza's isolation. The overgrown patch is amid a busy vegetable market would not have been considered appropriate by Palestinians. An Israeli report proposed that the burial should take place in Abu Dis, a suburb to Jerusalem outside of the area that Israel claims. The proposal was later discarded by the Israeli government. Following a state funeral in Cairo, attended by many Arab leaders, Arafat was temporarily laid to rest on November 12 in a stone tomb within his former headquarters in Ramallah in the West Bank. Palestinians hope that his body will someday be moved to his final burial site in Jerusalem.