Arafat faked his blood donation

Not that anyone with common sense would've dared to take it, but it still looks like his pathetic offering was phony. The writer Joel Pollak attended Harvard's Center for European Studies and who revealed this was none other than Charles Enderlin of the al-Durah notoreity (H/T: Daled Amos):

France 2 TV journalist Charles Enderlin told a small audience at Harvard’s Center for European Studies today that Yasser Arafat had faked his blood donation to the victims of the September 11th attacks. Enderlin said the event had been staged for the media to counteract the embarrassing television images of Palestinians celebrating in the streets after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.

The blood donation story made headlines around the world. It was reported by esteemed news agencies like the BBC, and photographs of Arafat lying with an outstretched arm ran on many front pages. But the whole scene was staged, Enderlin said. Arafat didn’t like needles, and so the doctor put a needle near his arm and agitated a bag of blood. The reporters took the requisite photographs.

So it looks like that too was another big fat lie, intended just as much to try and gain sympathy for the devil. It's rather strange though, how Enderlin is willing to admit to that, but as far as the al-Durah case is concerned, he is not.

Prof. Richard Landes was also at Harvard, and has more on the subject here.