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Foreign Ministry dismisses Swiss team's findings on Arafat's death

NOVEMBER 6, 2013 20:21

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor on Wednesday dismissed findings of the Swiss forensic team that concluded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned, after finding traces of polonium in samples of his remains.

Palmor said the findings were "more soap opera than science" and said it was part of the ongoing battle between Arafat's widow and the Palestinian Authority.

While Suha Arafat commissioned the Swiss Institute to investigate, Palmor said that the Palestinian Authority turned to a Russian team which last month concluded that no traces of polonium were found.

"It is all very, very confused and unclear," Palmor said. "What is clear is that there are huge holes in the theory, more holes than in Swiss cheese." He said that the Swiss report was made without the team looking for traces of radioactivity at Arafat's former office in Ramallah or in the French hospital where Arafat was hospitalized. Nor, he said, did they have access to Arafat's medical files.

"How can you determine the cause of death without all the necessary information," he asked. "This is not serious."

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