Eyal Weizman

The investigation into the cause of Arafat’s death began with his famed keffiyeh, the one he had with him on 29 October 2004, when he left Palestine for medical treatment in France after suddenly falling ill. In the summer of 2012 it was one of a few items, along with a toothbrush and underwear, handed over for analysis to the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne by Arafat’s widow, Suha. The Swiss scientists found that the items contained traces of the radioactive poison polonium 210, and that November, in a process directed by the Palestinian Authority, a pathologist exhumed Arafat’s grave in Ramallah. Sixty samples from his remains and the surrounding parts of his tomb were distributed to three forensic teams: one Russian, one Swiss, one French.

In the course of the eight-day aerial bombardment of Gaza by Israel – using drones, F-16s and Apache helicopters – more than 1350 buildings were hit. They included military depots, which are considered legitimate targets under international humanitarian law. But the police stations, TV stations, a local healthcare centre, ministries, road tunnels and a bridge that were also...