Palestine: Documentary About Arafat’s Death Prompts Questions · Global Voices
Ola Anan

On 3 July, 2012 the news channel Al Jazeera broadcast a documentary that investigated the mysterious death of Palestinian president Yasser Arafat. He died in Paris on 11 November, 2004 and the documentary alleges that rather than dying of natural causes, Arafat was poisoned with polonium.
Both during and after the airing of the documentary, many Palestinian Twitter users tweeted their thoughts and reactions regarding the evidence presented in it. The majority were not surprised by the allegations that Arafat was poisoned, something that has long been claimed by many. However the allegation that polonium was used was a new detail.
‏Twitter user This Is Gaza tweeted:
Yasser Arafat at the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 2001. Image by Remy Steinegger (CC BY-SA 2.0).
And I commented:
Many Palestinians questioned why the documentary was being broadcast now, and resorted to conspiracy theories as an explanation. Twitter user Majd responded:
Yasser Arafat's mausoleum. Image by Mary-Katherine Ream (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Nour Abed did not hide her bad opinion of Al Jazeera and the media in general, but she did praise it for the documetary:
Diana Alzeer was looking forward to even more answers:
‏@ManaraRam: The next question I want an answer for is “Who killed Arafat?”
Ismaeil Mohaisen tweeted some accusations against the Palestinian Authority:
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In a similar vein, Rami Khrais tweeted:
The documentary ended with Yasser Arafat's widow Suha Arafat requesting that the Palestinian Authority exhume her late husband’s body so the investigation could be continued. President Mahmoud Abbas made a statement saying that the Palestinian Authority “saw no reason” why the body should not be exhumed. We are now waiting to see what will happen next.