Widow of late Palestine leader Arafat: 'Second Intifada was a mistake'

Suha Arafat, widow of the late Palestinian Authority (PA), Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Fatah leader Yasser Arafat, has stated that the second Intifada “was a mistake,” Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

In an interview, Mrs Arafat acquitted Israel of responsibility for poisoning and causing the death of Yasser Arafat.

She also considered that Arafat went down the path of terrorism with his involvement in the second Intifada, known as Al-Aqsa Intifada.

“Yasser Arafat was definitely poisoned,” she stressed to the Israeli newspaper. She further indicated that he was poisoned “by Palestinians and not Israelis.”

She added: “Everyone believed that Israel was guilty, but I am not accusing it. I have always said that it is too easy to say Israel, but I do not think the Israelis killed Arafat.”

Read: Remembering Yasser Arafat

Mrs Arafat expressed that Yasser Arafat was very sad about the assassination of late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabi. “Yasser really mourned and deeply grieved for the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, but he was obsessed with hatred for [late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon.”

Arafat, who signed the 1993 peace accords with Israel, which conceded 78 per cent of the area of historic Palestine, died aged 75 in a French hospital in November 2004.

The reason for his death was not definitive, prompting multiple theories surrounding it, most of them accusing Israel.

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