Peres acknowledges that Arafat was assassinated by Israel

Hamas has called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to stop all forms of negotiations with the occupation authorities following Shimon Peres’s de facto acknowledgement that Israel was behind the assassination of Yasser Arafat. In an interview with Ronen Bergman in the New York Times, it was put to the Israeli president that he, “didn’t think that Arafat should be assassinated”, to which he replied, “No. I thought it was possible to do business with him”.

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A statement from Hamas said, “Peres’s acknowledgement of his country’s responsibility for the assassination of Arafat is more than enough for Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] to take an immediate, responsible decision to end all forms of negotiations with the Israeli occupation.”

Hamas also called for the case to be taken to the international criminal court. “We must work to expose to the public all of the circumstances of this crime, so that this and other crimes committed by Israel against Palestinian leaders and national symbols may be exposed.”