Another day, another PA conspiracy theory

From TOI yesterday:

A senior Fatah official said Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority planned to appeal the decision to close the French inquiry into the death of Yasser Arafat over concerns investigators had concealed information.

In an interview on Palestinian public radio, Tawfik Tirawi said that French prosecutors contacted Palestinian officials last month requesting that, should their inquiry determine that the former president was poisoned — as the Palestinians claim — the PA would not execute anyone who may be implicated in the assassination.

Tirawi, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee who heads the official Palestinian investigation commission into Arafat’s death, claimed that the French request “indicated that the there is a secret the French want to cover up,” Israel Radio reported.

On Tuesday, a panel of French judges reexamining Arafat’s death concluded their investigation, and sent their findings to the prosecutor, who has three months to prepare submissions on whether to dismiss the case or put it forward to court.

French experts “maintain that the polonium-210 and lead-210 found in Arafat’s grave and in the samples are of an environmental nature,” Nanterre prosecutor Catherine Denis said last month.

If the French - who seem to have been handpicked by the PLO to investigate, along with Russia and the Swiss - don't corroborate the PLO's official line that Arafat was murdered, then they must be in on the conspiracy!

The Russian scientists came to the same conclusion as the French.

Suha Arafat also weighed in, denouncing the French report and saying that the French scientists cannot explain the circumstances of Arafat's death. She also expressed shock at how quickly the French are deciding to end the investigation, saying that it should continue - and keep her in the headlines - until it finds the results that she would be happy with.

Suha's lawyer said long ago that they will ignore the Russian and French reports because they don't say what she wants them to say.

Besides the fondness for conspiracy theories, the story shows an important fact:  Palestinian Arabs will disregard facts when they don't fit their narrative. The narrative is all-important, and facts are fungible, whose only purpose is to be used selectively.

You will rarely find a Palestinian Arab official say "sorry, I was wrong." You won't find a Palestinian "new historian" writing a book about the events of 1948 that contradicts the "Naqba" narrative. You won't find newspaper articles that call into question the sacred cows of Palestinian myth, from the "refugees" to Arafat's death.

It is difficult for the West to understand a mindset where facts themselves are regarded as optional and where their story is more important than history. Surely, we think, they must admit that 2+2=4, right?

In the honor/shame culture, appearances are more important than facts. How you are viewed trumps how you really are. So many of these bizarre incidents, including conspiracy theories, can be explained by understanding the honor/shame mentality and culture.

It is fundamental to understanding the Middle East.