PA Corruption

This is the first time ICJS has put a piece from al jazeera on their home page. Its relevance on this site is that even the Arab Press now concedes that Arafat has been sitting on at least $4.2 billion. Politicians, newspaper correspondents, and opinion leaders have been avoiding confronting this evidence for long enough. Arafat is not the only one who has misappropriated international aid money and other assets from the Palestinian people. Do we need to wait for each of them to go into a coma before we notice?

If you are interested take a look at www.euFunding.org where much of the evidence has been collated. There is also a good article in the Washington Times on the same theme titled Will $1 billion be buried with Arafat?

The Fight for Arafat’s Fortune Begins

11/1/2004 9:00:00 PM GMT

Arafat is one of the worlds richest men. Sources close to the Palestinian leadership said a bitter fight had broken out over who should control the ailing leader’s fortune estimated to be between $4.2 billion and $6.5 billion.

Sources said Arafat has written a will transferring control of his assets to members of his wife’s family. Some of his aides, including former Premier Mahmoud Abbas who has stepped in as interim leader, however, believe the fortune belongs to the “beit al-mal” (public treasury), and should be transferred to the Palestinian Authority. The controversy started last week when Suha, Arafat’s wife, asked Muhammad Rashid, Arafat’s confidant and adviser, to prepare a list of the ailing leader’s fortune. According to Palestinian sources Rashid has said he would furnish the list only to the Palestinian Authority.

Identifying Arafat’s personal fortune and separating it from numerous secret bank accounts that he maintains in the name of the Palestine Liberation Orgaization and Al-Fatah is no easy task.

According to Jean-Claude Robard, a Swiss investment adviser, Arafat opened his first secret bank account in 1965 with a $50,000 check from the emir of Kuwait. Since then he has set up other accounts in Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands.

Arafat also owns a number of hotels and holiday resorts in Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, and Austria. He is the main shareholder in two cellular telephone companies operating in Tunisia and Algeria.

Some of Arafat’s businesses are in partnership with Arab politicians, former officials and entrepreneurs, including Rifaat Assad, a brother of the late Syrian President Hafez Assad, and Barzan Al-Takriti, a half-brother of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Al-Takriti is now under arrest in Baghdad.

Original URL http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/review/article_full_story.asp?service_id=5458

---