Israel Rejects Arafat Choice of Burial Site

Even before Yasser Arafat is declared dead, he is at the centre of a dispute over where he will be laid to rest, after Israel refused to allow his burial in the holy city of Jerusalem.

The Palestinian leader wishes to be interred at one of the most sacred sites in Islam, Haram as-Sharif, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, inside Jerusalem's old city.

But Ariel Sharon told his cabinet that he will not permit Mr Arafat to be buried in the old city or anywhere else in greater Jerusalem, which Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital.

Yesterday, 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."

US and French officials were attempting to defuse the row after Israel said it would prefer Mr Arafat to be buried in the Gaza Strip. His family, backed by some Palestinian leaders, wants him interred on the edge of Jerusalem or in Ramallah, where he has mostly lived since he returned to the West Bank 10 years ago.

The row over the burial site and the need to arrange a state funeral likely to be attended by the Egyptian, Jordanian and French leaders among others has led to speculation that Mr Arafat is being kept on life support while these issues are resolved.

Leila Shahid, a Palestinian official at the French hospital where the ailing 75-year-old is being treated for an undiagnosed illness, yesterday admitted for the first time that Mr Arafat was in a coma but denied reports that he is brain dead. "Yasser Arafat, in his state of health and at his age, is at a critical juncture between life and death," she said. "I assure you that he is not brain dead. He is in a coma. We are not sure what type, but it is a reversible coma."

Just after dusk in Paris, the spokesman for the Percy military hospital outside Paris emerged to issue another curt update on the Palestinian leader's health. Prefacing his remarks by explaining that his statement was once again in accordance with the "discretion" demanded by Mr Arafat's wife, Suha, he said that there was no change in his health.

Israeli and Palestinian officials decline to talk in public about the dispute over the burial. But, yesterday, the top Muslim cleric in Jerusalem, the Grand Mufti, Ekrima Sa'eed Sadri, said Mr Arafat's wish should be granted.

"President Arafat has a will and in that will he wants to be buried in Jerusalem. Under Sharia law, the righteous thing is to obey the will of Arafat. We must abide in full," he said.

The Grand Mufti said he would not seek Israeli permission to bury Mr Arafat in the old city. "We are expecting the refusal of it. They have already said so. I am not willing to ask Sharon's permission to bury our dead. If I ask Sharon's permission it is as if I give legitimacy to his control over our land," he said.

Israel had considered a burial site on the edge of Jerusalem in the village of Abu Dis, which was within sight of Haram as-Sharif until Israel built the 8-metre high security wall through the city. Mr Arafat would have been buried on the West Bank side.

But Mr Sharon told his cabinet this week that Abu Dis is also unacceptable.

The Israeli government's concerns are partly political, because it fears that Mr Arafat's burial in Jerusalem would be interpreted as recognition that Palestinians have political rights in the city.

Some Israeli security officials are concerned that if a large funeral were held on the edge of Jerusalem, or even in Ramallah, crowds of Palestinians could simply carry Mr Arafat's body to the old city and it would be difficult for Israeli forces to stop them. Israeli diplomats do not relish the prospect of a confrontation at a state funeral that is likely to attract high-ranking representatives of Arab, European and African nations.

Israel would prefer Mr Arafat to be buried alongside his father and sister in Khan Yunis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, where the family has a plot of about 25 graves.

The Palestinian leader's brother, Fathi Arafat, reported to be gravely ill with cancer in a Cairo hospital, is also expected to be buried there.

That would resolve a number of problems for the Israelis. Any protests would be contained behind the heavily fortified fence around Gaza and mourners from Arab countries would be able to cross direct from Egypt without travelling through West Bank territory that Israel views as its own.

A Palestinian official said a compromise was likely, although he acknowledged there was little prospect of the funeral taking place in Jerusalem.