Arafat: Israel Used Depleted Uranium In Palestine

President Arafat: Israel Used Depleted Uranium to Suppress the Palestinian People

RAMALLAH - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat asserted that Israel used depleted uranium against the Palestinian people, which was evidently verified by American and European assertions as well as the cancer rate among Palestinians has risen similar to that caused in “Hiroshima”.

Arafat’s remarks came following his reception of a delegation involving Christian, Jewish and Muslim figures headed by Mitchell Koal on Sunday in his office in Rammallah.

Speaking to the delegation, President Arafat disclosed that the Apartheid Wall had confiscated 58% of the Palestinian lands in the West Bank, besides the disastrous economic consequences the wall caused; destroying farms, factories and turning the Palestinian cities into isolated cantons.

Arafat, who has been besieged in his battered compound in Ramallah for 19 months by Israel, pointed out that there are Israeli generals who refused to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories or participate in the criminal and wrong-doings committed there.

He added that the Israeli occupying forces perished 64-65% of the olive groves and stole 90% of the palm trees in Deir al Balah, over 4,762 Palestinian houses were demolished and the toll of killed and wounded people exceeded 71,000.

Grumbling about the Israeli movement restrictions, President Arafat mentioned that traveling between Ramallah and Bethlehem normally takes three hours but at present, travelers were obliged to wait long hours to cross the distance, not to mention that women in labor were denied access to pass through the checkpoints, and eventually they gave birth at the checkpoints.

“Where do such doings happen in the world?” President Arafat exclaimed.

Up to this moment, the Israeli government has not yet approved the "Road Map" peace process and conditioned about 14 amendments on the plan as well as the Israeli slam of all the agreed upon agreements including the Mitchell report, Tenet Understandings and the UN resolutions, President Arafat briefed the delegation.

“We (Palestinians) want an equitable and everlasting peace that was agreed upon with the late Yitzhak Rabin,” Arafat said.

Mr. Koal, on his part, asserted the backing of international and regional peace and dialogue and that the delegation came to solidify with the Palestinian people and to channel the Palestinian ordeal to Europe.

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