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. [1] 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." [2] 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. [3] [4][5] Israel's favoured burial place was Arafat's family plot in Khan Younis mainly because of Gaza's isolation. [6] The overgrown patch is amid a busy vegetable market would not have been considered appropriate by Palestinians. [7] An Israeli report proposed that the burial should take place in Abu Dis, a suburb to Jerusalem outside of the area that Israel claims. [8] The proposal was later discarded by the Israeli government. [9] 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. [10]