I can't buy into the fact that they would delay the announcement of his death by days because there was no point. The whole world was watching and
his death is well documented.
His Wiki article gives this as his time of death:
Arafat was pronounced dead at 3:30 am UTC on November 11 at the age of 75. The exact cause of his illness is unknown.
Further down the page it gives his time of burial:
Burial
On November 11, the French military Honor Guard held a funeral for Arafat at a military airport near Paris. President Jacques Chirac stood alone
beside Arafat's body for about ten minutes in a last show of respect for a leader he hailed as, "a man of courage". The next day, Arafat was flown
to Egypt's capital Cairo for another brief military funeral there, before his burial in Ramallah, later that day. The funeral was attended by several
heads of states, prime ministers and foreign ministers. Egypt's top Muslim cleric Sayed Tantawi led mourning prayers preceding the funeral
procession.
Israel refused Arafat's wish to be buried in or near al-Aqsa Mosque or anywhere in Jerusalem, citing widespread security concerns. Following his
Cairo procession, Arafat was "temporarily" laid to rest within his former headquarters in Ramallah; the ceremony was watched by thousands of
Palestinians. After Sheikh Taissir Tamimi discovered that Arafat was buried improperly and in a coffin – which is not in accordance with Islamic law
– Arafat was reburied on the morning of November 13, at around 3:00 am.
France will not release the medical records because of privacy laws but I think enough people were involved that a cover-up would be difficult. He had
people involved in his transportation, medical care, security, Rawhi Fattouh's people, the U.S. government, and people with any financial involvement
in the region.
As far as religious requirements for the burial I can give you this quote with a link.
Preparation for Burial
The climate of Palestine necessitated the quickest possible disposition of the corpse; interment, therefore, took place on the day of death (Deut.
xxi. 23). In the time of Christ the body was washed, anointed with fragrant spices, and more or less completely wrapped in linen (Acts. ix. 37; Mark
xvi. 1; John xi. 44). The Old Testament makes no allusion to this custom. The belief that the dead in Sheol might be recognized by the habit implies
that in early times the corpse was buried in the apparel of daily life. Later, royalty and officials were buried with costly spices, ornaments, gold,
and silver (Josephus, Ant., XIII. viii. 4; XV. iii. 4). And if the account by Josephus of the plundering of David's tomb by Hyrcanus and Herod may be
trusted, this custom reached back into antiquity. Embalming was a custom foreign to the Hebrews; cases of it are Jacob and Joseph (Gen. l. 2, 26) and
Aristobulus (Josephus, Ant., XIV. vii. 4). The use of coffins was post-exilic.
www.ccel.org...
His funeral was anything but traditional though............
Police fired wildly into the air to keep back the surging crowd at the West Bank compound known as the Muqata. Frantic mourners surged toward the
tomb as clerics recited prayers, trampling the olive tree saplings the were planted around the grave according to Islamic tradition.
Officials tried for 25 minutes to open the helicopter door to remove the coffin onto a jeep that had plowed through the crowd to clear a path. As the
coffin was carried toward the gravesite, police jumped on top of it, waved their arms and flashed the victory sign. People chanted, "With our blood
and our soul we will redeem you Yasser Arafat!"
Gunfire was heard on an almost continuous basis the compound area. Palestinian paramedics carrying stretchers ran frantically near the entrance,
aiding the wounded demonstrators.
Gunmen holding assault rifles aloft by one hand fired long bursts into the air. Two mourners were reportedly lightly wounded by the gunfire. About 30
people were treated for fainting and other conditions related to the over-crowding. A steady stream of ambulances carried away the wounded. Even they
had a hard time getting through the dense chanting mob.
web.israelinsider.com...
Sorry to drag up such an old thread, but I found it interesting because I can't seem to draw a solid conclusion on whether his death was a murder,
AIDS related due to his preference to young men and boys, or a natural death just due to age and illness.
I'd like to take a look at those medical records that are sealed.
