Arafat Scolds Israel on Death Wish

[Nottingham]

Arafat Scolds Israel on Death Wish
Thu September 18, 2003 07:46 AM ET






By Matt Spetalnick
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told Israelis on Thursday they should be ashamed of themselves for wanting him dead and appealed to them to help restore a shattered cease-fire.
Israeli cabinet minister Danny Naveh dismissed Arafat's comments in Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's largest-circulation daily, as part of a "campaign of lies."

Just hours earlier, Israeli forces killed a senior Hamas militant in a gun battle in a Gaza Strip refugee camp. Frequent tit-for-tat violence has derailed a U.S.-backed peace plan.
Arafat has launched a media offensive with a rapid-fire series of interviews in response to Israel's decision to "remove" him after suicide bombings killed 15 people last week. The threat has touched off an international outcry and boosted his grass-roots support.

"Aren't you ashamed of yourselves?" Arafat told Israelis in remarks to Yedioth, referring to a recent poll in the newspaper that found 37 percent of Israelis favored killing him and 23 percent wanted him exiled.

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Israel made a big maistake declring that! :bounce: