'Dahlan's failing mental health treated in Israel'

Ma'an – TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Former Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan's mental health is rapidly deteriorating, according to a 2005 assessment by a top Israeli security official made public Sunday by WikiLeaks.

In a message to Washington sent from the US embassy in Tel Aviv, then head of the Israeli Defense Ministry's political-security branch Amos Gilad described Dahlan as "a man whose emotional and mental health" was declining fast.

Gilad described one meeting as follows: "'Dahlan was there with his daughter-in-law. I told him 'You are sick,' and he started screaming and shouting at me. He shouted for hours," according to the document, one of a number of WikiLeaks' yet-to-be-released embassy cables obtained in advance by Israel's Haaretz daily.

"We called a doctor and suggested he go to a hospital. He refused and said he had to speak to thousands of Palestinians on September 17. He then collapsed on his bed. He looked ghostly white ... I said, 'If you leave this room you will either be martyred or end up paralyzed.'

"He broke down in my arms and said he would go to hospital. We arranged a VIP room at a hospital in Tel Aviv and took him there in an ambulance with a police escort. The following day doctors said he had a slipped disc," the cable quoted Gilad as saying.

Gilad said King Abdullah of Jordan sent a helicopter and flew Dahlan to Amman, Haaretz reported.

Although Gilad is quoted as describing Dahlan as "destructive" and an "extremist," he also points out, positively, Dahlan's alleged role in the "elimination" of Palestinian Authority interior minister Nasser Yousef.