The Palestinian Authority suffered a diplomatic embarrassment after an announcement claiming that British Prime Minister Tony Blair sent Yassir Arafat a card evoking the creation of a Palestinian state was denied by the British PM’s office.
WAFA, the PA’s official news agency, announced that Arafat received a Christmas card wherein Blair wrote he hopes that Palestinians “realize their hopes in establishing an independent Palestinian state,” according to reports.
The Media Line found that the only message appearing on WAFA’s online archive for December 24 acknowledges that Arafat received a card from Blair and that Arafat responded in writing.
Tony Blair’s office denied that any greeting had been sent and stated that Blair does not send out such greetings to anybody, according to the same sources.
WAFA retracted its original statement on Saturday and wrote that Blair sent a “traditional” card in response to a seasonal card sent by Arafat. The later statement claimed that Blair’s office adamantly denied the incident for fear of being accused of anti-Semitism, adding that the UK was primarily responsible for the Nakba, or disaster that was the creation of Israel in 1948.
All the statements were published on the Arabic version of the WAFA website only.
The Saturday statement read that WAFA had not invented anything about Blair and only reiterated EU policy (including the UK) towards the Palestinians and a future Palestinian state. The statement also brought up Israel and the U.S.: “Do the tanks and helicopters and all other Israeli weapons which hit Rafah and bomb Gaza constitute another greeting card, an American-Israeli one, on the threshold of the new year? This new year has not seen the end of the Israeli official and organized occupation, murder, destruction and terror, to which the U.S. gives its blessing.”