Fatah adopts resolution blaming Israel for Arafat's death

The sixth General Assembly of Fatah unanimously adopted on Thursday a proposal calling for the establishment of a committee which would investigate the death of former Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat while abiding by the following guidelines: that Israel bears full responsibility for his death, that the issue continues to remain open, and that the investigation enlists international support.

Late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Slideshow: Fatah in Bethlehem

The proposal was raised by Bassam Abu Sharif, Arafat's former political advisor, and was motivated both by demands from a number of Fatah delegates at the gathering, and also by estranged PLO leader Farouk Qaddoumi, who in an interview in mid-July claimed he possessed a document which proved the former chairman's murder was the result of an Israeli-Palestinian conspiracy.

In speaking to Al Jazeera, Abu Sharif was adamant that Qaddoumi's theory was incorrect, but nonetheless said that the circumstances surrounding the death warranted further inquiry.

"Qaddoumi is mistaken concerning the uncovered document, and his inference of [PA President Mahmoud Abbas's] involvement in Arafat's assassination is wrong," Abu Sharif said. "Mahmoud Abbas had no hand in the matter."

However, not all share Abu Sharif's sentiment. Husam Khader, a Fatah legislator from the Nablus area, told The Jerusalem Post that he was confident that Palestinians were involved in the "assassination of Arafat." He called for the interrogation of all members of the Fatah Central Committee in this regard.

The investigative committee will be headed by Nasser el Qidweh, a nephew of Arafat.

when he told reporters in the Jordanian capital of Amman that Arafat had handed him before his death a protocol of a meeting where Abbas, former PA strongman Muhammed Dahlan, former prime minister Ariel Sharon and US intelligence officers allegedly planned to assassinate the former PA chairman.

Qaddoumi presented the reporters with a summary of the ostensible protocol in which Sharon allegedly told Abbas and Dahlan that they must also work toward eliminating the political and military leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah's armed wing, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Alex Sorin contributed to this report.