who killed arafat?

'Israel hastened Arafat's death'
ROHIT WADHWANEY

TIMESOFINDIA.COM
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2004 05:10:44 PM ]

NEW DELHI: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is dead, but his fight for freedom will not die, declared the Palestinian embassy here.

"Why do we need permission from Israel to move around? Why do we need Israel's permission to take Arafat to the hospital? Why should Israel tell us where to bury our leader? Arafat died because he was attended to 15 days late. It was because Israel wouldn't allow it," said Osama Musa, the Palestinian Ambassador to India.

"Arafat loved India, mostly because Indians could understand our situation, our struggle. As even India was under forced occupation by the British for 200 years. Indians too were beaten up," Musa said. "The Indian freedom struggle inspired Arafat."

"No, we will not appreciate it if Israel stops beating us up to assert their supremacy. Israel is guilty and will always be guilty. You can't clap for those that stop beating you up, for they shouldn't be beating you in the first place. That's what we believe. It's what our leader taught us," he said.

"Arafat's thinking, his teachings, his struggle for freedom will always be alive," said Musa. "We will continue to fight for what he dreamt of - our freedom from Israel."

Musa said even though Arafat, 75, who led the Palestinians for four decades was not with them anymore, "we would not let it affect our unity in our struggle for freedom."

"He brought us together. Before him, we were just refugees. He began the freedom movement for us, and we will continue to do what he taught us with even greater determination now," the Palestinian envoy said. "After all, we have to put soil on his grave."

"Arafat taught us that we aren't fighting Israel, we are fighting the tanks that have been forced into our bedrooms. We are fighting the occupants," Musa said.