What killed Arafat?

last updated 8 January 2015

Paris

The Paris hospital where Yasser Arafat died released his medical records to his nephew this week, in an attempt to put to rest rumors that the Palestinian leader was poisoned. But the nephew, Nasser al-Kidwa, said that, while extensive tests had turned up “no known poisons,” he refused to rule out foul play. “I believe the Israeli authorities are largely responsible for what happened,” said al-Kidwa, who is also the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N. Al-Kidwa did not comment on the increasingly prevalent rumor that Arafat had AIDS, a claim that has been aired in the Israeli press and in the U.S. by prominent conservative commentator David Frum.