It looks like Arafat was murdered by the Israelis after all. No surprise there.

When the Paestinians got recognized as an independent country, they lost all claim to any tax revenue from Israel.
There is no international law that says any country must trade with another. If the Palestinians want to collect tax revenue, its up to their own govt to collect it, its not up to Israel to collect it for them.
Thats like saying its up to the UK to collect tax revenue for the US.

It's not the same: Israel collects tariffs on foreign imports and value added taxes (VAT) on Israeli goods and services. And that is done under the terms of the 1993 Oslo accords.
Which certainly is something very different to "a country must trade with another".

The UN and the Palestinians abrogated the Oslo Accords a couple months ago when the UN unilaterally recognized the Palestinians.

Anything that once relied on the authority of the Oslo Accords is now null and void. That includes 1967 borders, and any sort of negotiated solution.

"Following recent developments in our region, people have been talking about the validity of the Oslo Accords, which were signed on 13.9.1993 in Washington," the astrologist wrote. "The stars show that this vision is moving further away, and even though there are attempts to 'revive' it, this is artificial respiration. Reality will return and show that it has no chance."

oralloy wrote:

The UN and the Palestinians abrogated the Oslo Accords a couple months ago when the UN unilaterally recognized the Palestinians.

You have a quote for that?

oralloy wrote:

Anything that once relied on the authority of the Oslo Accords is now null and void. That includes 1967 borders, and any sort of negotiated solution.

If you've got a quote for my above question, then it's fine. Otherwise, you've a very strange - to say it mildly - idea about legal acts; and international law and treaties in particular.

There is no international law that says any country must trade with another.

Okay. I'll formulate my question differently: who declare the Oslo Accords abrogated? (Legally educated as you are, you certainly know that even a fundamental breach of any treaty violates it ... but it isn't automatically declared abrogated.)

BTW, please show where I attacked the GA vote on anything, ever.

When the Paestinians got recognized as an independent country, they lost all claim to any tax revenue from Israel.

What I do believe is that any tax revenue paid BEFORE Palestine was recognized by the UN as a state should be turned over to them, after that its up to the PA to collect their own taxes, just like any other state does.

The late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat may have been poisoned with radioactive polonium, says a Swiss forensic report obtained by al-Jazeera.

Arafat's official medical records say he died in 2004 from a stroke resulting from a blood disorder.

But his body was exhumed last year amid continuing claims he was murdered.

The Swiss report said tests on the body showed "unexpected high activity" of polonium, which "moderately" supported the poisoning theory.

Many Palestinians and others have long believed that Israel poisoned Arafat. Others allege that he had Aids or cancer. Israel has consistently denied any involvement.

A spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry said the Swiss investigation was "more soap opera than science". The scientists - from the Vaudois University Hospital Centre (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland - carried out a detailed examination of Arafat's medical records, samples taken from his remains and items he had taken into the hospital in Paris where he died in 2004.


He said the investigations had been commissioned by "interested parties" - Mr Arafat's widow and the Palestinian Authority - and had "never bothered" to look for some key data.

"The other huge hole in the theory is the absence of all access to the French hospital where Arafat died and to Arafat's medical files," said Mr Palmor.

"How can the cause of death be determined without the opinion of the doctors or the results of the medical tests they ran on the patient?

"Israel doesn't feel concerned in the least."

Speaking in Paris, Arafat's widow, Suha, said the Swiss results revealed "a real crime, a political assassination".

"This has confirmed all our doubts. It is scientifically proved that he didn't die a natural death and we have scientific proof that this man was killed."

Reuters said she did not name any suspects and acknowledged that her husband had had many enemies in his lifetime.

Arafat, who led the Palestine Liberation Organisation for 35 years and became the first president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, fell violently ill in October 2004 at his compound.

Two weeks later he was flown to a French military hospital in Paris, where he died on 11 November 2004, aged 75.

France began a murder inquiry in August 2012 after the Lausanne scientists, working with an al-Jazeera documentary crew, found traces of polonium-210 on Arafat's personal effects.

His widow had objected to a post-mortem at the time of his death, but asked the Palestinian Authority to permit the exhumation "to reveal the truth".

His remains were removed from his tomb in the West Bank city of Ramallah in November 2012 and reinterred the same day.

Last month, the head of the Russian Federal Medico-Biological Agency, Vladimir Uiba, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that Arafat "could not have been poisoned with polonium", saying that test carried out by Russian experts "found no traces of this substance".

However, the agency later denied that Mr Uiba had made any official statement on the findings.

The head of the Palestinian investigation team, Tawfiq Tirawi, confirmed on Tuesday that the Russian and Swiss reports had been delivered. The Palestinian team is reported to have handed over its findings on Saturday.


Swiss scientists' findingsExperts at the Vaudois University Hospital Centre (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland, conducted tests on samples taken from Yasser Arafat's exhumed body in November 2012
Samples also analysed by Palestinian, French and Russian teams, whose findings have yet to be published by the Palestinian Authority
Swiss report says "unexpectedly high levels of polonium-210 and lead-210 activity" found in specimens taken from Arafat's ribs, pelvis and soil that absorbed his bodily fluids
It notes a lack of adequate biological specimens, particularly soft tissues, and the eight years between death and the investigation, rendering detection subject to uncertainties
But it concludes results "moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210"
Q&A: Exhumation of Yasser Arafat

They concluded that their results "moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210".

The scientists stressed that they had been unable to reach a more definitive conclusion because of the time that had lapsed since Arafat's death, the limited samples available and the confused "chain of custody" of some of the specimens.

Polonium-210 is a highly radioactive substance. It is found in low doses in food and created naturally in the body, but can be fatal if ingested in high doses.

Parallel investigations are being carried out by French and Russian experts - one Russian official said last month that no traces of polonium had been found.