Arafat tomb being overhauled

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Yasser Arafat’s tomb is undergoing an overhaul.

On Nov. 11, the third anniversary of Arafat’s death, the Palestinian Authority plans to unveil an ornate tomb complex replacing the simple miniature plaza that previously marked his burial place in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The new tomb features a hall, a mosque with marble flooring, and a small pool network and landscaped garden.

Arafat had wanted to be buried in the Muslim cemetery next to the Al-Aksa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount but Israel, shunning the Palestinian leader for orchestrating an eruption of violence in 2000, denied permission.

Instead, Arafat’s final resting place was a patch of the former parking lot in his Ramallah headquarters.

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