Israel Matzav

Arafat's stinken body exhumed

In Jewish tradition, there are a very limited number of circumstances in which it is permitted to exhume bodies. We exhume bodies to move them to a family grave (or to a proper grave) when they were buried under emergency circumstances. We exhume bodies for reburial in Israel, which is considered a special merit. And occasionally we exhume bodies that were not buried in a cemetery because of a public need. Consult your local Orthodox rabbi whether it's permitted if you ever have a question about it.

One reason we don't exhume bodies is that a person is judged by the Almighty during the 11 months (year if you're really bad) after the person passes away, receives his or her judgment, and then in most cases is brought to the afterlife. However, if one's body is exhumed, one is judged all over again.

One can only hope that Yasser Arafat is suffering miserably once again, eight years after the fact, due to the bogus 'investigation' into the cause of his death. In the interest of that 'investigation,' Arafat's body was exhumed from his grave in Ramallah on Tuesday.

A team of international experts from Switzerland, France and Russia was due to take samples from Arafat's body to see if they could detect any trace of poison. The corpse will be reburied later in the day with full military honors. 

French magistrates opened a murder inquiry in August into Arafat's death in Paris after Arafat’s wife, Suha, had requested an autopsy to search for traces of a poisonous substance. She told Al Jazeera in July that a Swiss laboratory had detected high levels of the radioactive isotope polonium in Arafat’s clothes, which have been in storage since his death in 2004. Palestinians have accused Israel of causing Arafat’s death, though no conclusive evidence has been presented publicly. Israel denies killing him.

Arafat, who founded the Palestine Liberation Organization, died in a French hospital at the age of 75. Doctors at the Percy military hospital in Clamart, France, said he suffered from a brain hemorrhage and fell into a coma before he died. He is buried below a glass tomb adjacent to the offices of his successor, Mahmoud Abbas.

 Maybe they can drop him into the ocean wrapped in pig lard on the way back to the grave? Heh.

Labels: AIDS, Yasser Arafat

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:18 AM