Yasser Arafat’s former personal assistant Mohammed Al-Dayeh said in a recent interview that Arafat opposed the Oslo Accords because he believed they involved excessive concessions and abandoned the broader Palestinian cause.
According to Al-Dayeh, Arafat supported the idea of all of Palestine “from the river to the sea” and did not limit his ambitions to Gaza and parts of Judea and Samaria. He also claimed that Arafat viewed armed struggle as the only path forward once peace efforts failed.
Al-Dayeh further alleged that Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin was financially supported by the Palestinian Authority, claiming his salary was paid through Arafat’s network and that Arafat approved Hamas activities.
He added that Marwan Barghouti who directed many of the suicide missions against Israeli civilians acted under Arafat’s direct orders. In addition, Al-Dayeh claimed that Arafat had sought martyrdom and was ultimately poisoned, alleging a conspiracy in which he was later injected with AIDS to conceal the cause of death.