The Mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, said that during a meeting four months ago, Arafat asked to be buried near the city's Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine. Jews revere the site, built on the ruins of the biblical Jewish temples, as the Temple Mount.
"The president has shown a desire to be buried in Jerusalem, and in a place that is close to the Al Aqsa Mosque," Sabri told The Associated Press. Sabri, the top Muslim official in Jerusalem, said he did not know whether the 75-year-old Arafat has a written will.
Israel's justice minister, Yosef Lapid, however, said Israel would not permita Jerusalem funeral, saying the city is "where Jewish kings are buried and not Arab terrorists."
