What Killed Arafat?

[Carsten Wiethoff]

The complete swiss report is here:

http://www.aljazeera.com/investigations/...63780.html

[David Guyatt]

Many years ago I remember reading quite a lot about Arafat's corruption and his dirty business deals with Israeli businessmen, amongst others.

By many ac count he was completely corrupt and, if that was the case, then who killed him is less obvious. Perhaps.

Arafat's Swiss Bank Account

by Issam Abu Issa
Middle East Quarterly
Fall 2004, pp. 15-23

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Yasir Arafat and the Palestinian Authority are known internationally for the violence between Israelis and Palestinians. As ruinous as that violence has been, another cancer permeates Arafat's administration; its name is corruption. From firsthand experience, I understand just how deep it is. Here is what I know.

From Optimism to Dismay

On July 1, 1994, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman, Yasir Arafat, arrived triumphant in the Gaza Strip, watched by millions on television across the world. I was already in Ramallah, having traveled there from my family's exile in Qatar in the weeks after Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and President Bill Clinton had signed the Oslo accords in September 1993. Between 1994 and 1996, I and fellow Palestinian businessmen and intellectuals spent many days brainstorming to see what contributions we could make to a Palestinian state. My family was originally from Haifa, and I hoped to witness an Israeli withdrawal of forces and the birth of a democratic Palestinian state. It was a time of optimism among Palestinians. I gathered with friends and business partners around the television in Ramallah and watched Arafat's arrival in the Gaza Strip.
In 1996, I founded the Palestine International Bank (PIB). Thousands of Palestinians in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the diaspora supported me financially or morally. My investors and I hoped to build a thriving economy in the newly autonomous PA areas. The PIB was truly Palestinian. Headquartered in Ramallah, it used mostly Palestinian capital, although it did receive support from other Arabs. All its reserves were kept inside Palestinian areas, and our shares traded actively on the Palestinian stock exchange. From nothing, we expanded our customer base to more than 15,500. Among those licensed by the newly established Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA), we were the largest bank in the Palestinian territories.
I first met Arafat in April 1995 while trying to secure a banking license for the PIB. This meeting at his Gaza office, though brief, was cordial and encouraging. I thought things would go smoothly. But, as the PIB grew more popular, Arafat's inner circle and, specifically, Muhammad Rashid, a PA official, also known as Khalid Salam and often described as an economic advisor to Arafat and manager of a small percentage of PIB stocks, made it difficult for us to branch out and move forward.[1] The PA, which strictly controls Palestinian media, launched a negative media blitz against us in a bid to suppress our growth. The systematic effort to undermine PIB came after I refused to cede power to Muhammad Rashid.[2]
Over the course of fifteen meetings, I became better acquainted with Arafat and grew increasingly concerned with his leadership style. Arafat and top PA officials did not respect the rule of law; many were corrupt. Arafat believed neither in separation of powers nor in checks and balances. His animosity toward accountability thwarted efforts to establish a responsible leadership. By 1996, Palestinians in the PA were saying they had traded one occupation for two, the one by Israel and the one by Arafat and his cronies.
Rather than use donor funds for their intended purposes, Arafat regularly diverted money to his own accounts. It is amazing that some U.S. officials still see the Palestinian Authority as a partner even after U.S. congressional records revealed authenticated PLO papers signed by Arafat in which he instructed his staff to divert donors' money to projects benefiting himself, his family, and his associates.[3]
How did Arafat's inner circle benefit? In 1994, he instructed the Palestinian Authority official in charge of finances, Muhammad Nashashibi, to fund secretlyto the tune of $50,000 per montha Jerusalem publicity center for Raymonda Tawil, Arafat's mother-in-law, and Ibrahim Qar'in, an associate of Arafat's family.[4] He also ordered the investment in the computer companies of 'Ali and Mazzan Sha'ath, sons of Nabil Sha'ath, the PA's key negotiator in talks with Israel. Amin Haddad, Arafat's designated governor of the Palestine Monetary Authority, established several import-export companies acting as the front man for Arafat. The Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction financed these activities.[5] Thus, an organization meant to channel funds from donor countries like France and Germany became a mechanism by which to enrich Arafat.
Arafat's men flagrantly displayed corruption. Arriving penniless in Gaza and the West Bank from exile in Tunisia, many PLO members amassed wealth, built villas in Gaza, Ramallah, Amman, and other places, and sent their children to the best schools in the United Kingdom and the United States. Hisham Makki, former head of the Palestine Broadcasting Services, assassinated in January 2001, earned a monthly salary of $1,500 but became a millionaire within a few years. Immediately after his assassination, Arafat froze Makki's personal bank accounts, estimated at $17 million. Makki was alleged to have taken bribes and sold government-owned equipment. However, it was rumored that he had a dispute with another PA official over the sharing of profits gained on illegal business transactions. His assailants, believed to be members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a shady group affiliated with Fatah, have never been caught.[6]
Palestinians complained. The corruption of Arafat and the Palestinian Authority were blatant, but it appeared as if their status quo policies caused Israel and the United States to turn a blind eye. Diplomats downplayed flagrant corruption. In August 2001, Israel seized close to a half million documents from Palestinian offices in Jerusalem and elsewhere. Subsequent State Department reports on Palestinian governance and terrorism made little use or even mention of these documents.[7] European and U.S. policymakers assumed Arafat's critics to be against the Oslo accord. That may have been the case with members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but it was not the case among more liberal-minded Palestinians and investors like me.
Arafat's corruption reached its peak in 1999 via the monster of "twelve security forces that nobody could control,"[8] in addition to the disorganized Tanzim (Fatah's militia). He played these services off each other, never allowing a subordinate to gain power. Between 1995 and 2000, Arafat's thugs beat up at least eleven elected members of the 88-member Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) because they voiced views in private and in public that were opposed to Arafat's on how the PA is run. The victims included PLC Human Rights Committee head Qaddoura Fares, Azmi ash-Shoaibi, Abdul Jawad Saleh, Hatem Abdul Kader, among others. Arafat wanted to terrorize and silence his critics. Indeed, one of his favorite slogans was Dimuqratiyat al-Banadiq (Democracy of the Guns). Arafat believes true power lies in force, whether directed against Israelis or against his own people.
How popular is Arafat among Palestinians? At times of crisis, television crews show cheering Palestinians demonstrating and greeting their leader outside his Ramallah headquarters. In better days, Palestinian television regularly broadcasts pro-Arafat rallies across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But rallies aren't always what they seem. PA funds are used to buy loyalty and drum up support.[9] The PA hires crowds, stages promotional media campaigns, and distributes Arafat's pictures in the streets and alleys of the Palestinian territories. Rather than build a viable state, Arafat sought only to amass wealth and power. I myself heard his entourage and close associates refer to him as al-Arrab, meaning "the Godfather."
At the end of 1997, when the PA Auditor's Office released its end of the year financial report, $326 million43 percent of the annual budgetwas "missing."[10] Only 57 percent of the budget was accounted for, spent on security forces (35 percent), office of the president (12.5 percent), and public allocation (9.5 percent). A special committee appointed by the PLC conducted an investigation and released a report accusing the PA of financial mismanagement. The findings of this panel exposed many official misgivings and abuses such as the use of government money for personal purposes by ministers Nabil Sha'ath, Talal Sidr, and Yasir Abd Rabboh; excessive expenditure on rent, salaries, and cost of travel in various ministries; receipt of bribes by ministry officials in the Ministry of Civil Affairs; illegal and unreported collection of taxes by the Ministry of Postal Services; granting illegal customs exemptions on cars, furniture, and material donations entering the PA, etc. It concluded that anyone involved in corruption should be taken to court, regardless of his position as minister, undersecretary, or director-general. The report demanded the ouster of at least two ministers: civil affairs minister Jamil at-Tarifi, and planning and international cooperation minister Nabil Sha'ath.[11]
The PLC voted 51-1 in favor of dissolving Arafat's appointed 18-member limited self-rule cabinet. Sixteen ministers gave letters to Arafat signaling readiness to resign if asked. But Arafat confirmed the corrupt ministers in their positions rather than firing them. Additionally, PLC member Haider Abdel Shafi resigned due to "frustration with the performance of the PLC and with the executive's total lack of concern for its recommendations," and added, "The PLC is a marginal body and not a true parliament."[12]
Even as the PLC committee was conducting its investigation, Arafat appointed Tayeb Abd al-Rahim, general secretary of the Presidential Office, to make a detailed inquiry into acts of corruption. His report remains secret.
In practice the reports were meaningless. Since Arafat does not honor rule of law, decisions by auditors or the Palestinian Legislative Council fall by the wayside. Corruption continues. More than six years after the report's issuance, Tarifi remains in the cabinet. Rather than face charges, Sha'ath has won promotion.
In another case, Salam Fayyad, the official in charge of finance, again said in August 2003 that there were many "irregularities" in the work of the Petroleum Authority, which has been siphoning money to secret bank accounts for years.[13] When Nablus legislator Mu'awyah al-Masri asked for details and figures about the revenues from oil products, Fayyad shocked the lawmakers by declaring, "Unfortunately, the documents related to the revenues from oil productsor how the money was usedcan't be found. They have disappeared from the ministry."[14]
The bank accounts of Harbi Sarsour, head of the Petroleum Authority, were frozen by the PA pending investigation into the scandal. But an initial investigation by Fayyad's office and the PLC showed that much of the oil profits had been deposited into a bank account under Arafat's name.[15]
For sheer scale, few allegations match up to a deal allegedly struck between Muhammad Rashid, one of Arafat's economic advisors, and the late Yossi Ginosar, a former Israeli security officer. Ginosar's company, ARC, helped open Swiss bank accounts and deposit funds into them derived from both PA-financed companies and Israeli tax rebates to the Palestinian Authority.[16] Over a period of five years, approximately US$900 million was diverted to these accounts.[17]
In early 2002, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research conducted a poll in which they surveyed 1,320 Palestinians. Eighty-five percent believed that there was corruption in PA institutions; only 16 percent gave a positive evaluation to democracy under the Palestinian Authority. Eighty-four percent expressed support for fundamental reforms in the PA.[18]

Arafat Robs the Palestine International Bank

On November 28, 1999, I became a victim of Arafat's abuse of power and flagrant disregard for the law. That's when, in direct breach of the law, Arafat issued a decree dissolving the Palestine International Bank's board of directors. The state-controlled Palestine Monetary Authority took over the bank, and with Arafat's blessing and written approval,[19] formed a new supervisory board of directors, including at least one convicted and Interpol-wanted felon. The unlawful takeover was a confiscation of my own, my shareholders', and my clients' private assets for Arafat's personal use. At the date of seizure, PIB total assets amounted to $105 million. Since the takeover, they have neither called for a shareholders' meeting nor disclosed the bank's balance sheet.
The PLC investigated the seizure of the bank after I lodged a complaint in 2000 about the PIB's unlawful takeover. The PMA governor then threatened the bank's auditing firm, Talal Abu Ghazaleh International (TAGI), for revealing facts and figures that implicated the Palestinian leadership. The PMA governor took punitive measures against them but was unanimously condemned by the PLC.[20] Meanwhile, the PMA altered, hid, or destroyed bank records in their campaign to demonstrate malfeasance on my part retroactively. They supplied false information to the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) group leading to a faulty audit. PWC seems to have taken for granted the accuracy of material that PMA governor Amin Haddad supplied, but he both provided some fraudulent documents and omitted others. The Qatari government, which has remained interested in the case because of my Qatari citizenship, rejected the PWC Report.[21]
As they seized the bank, Arafat's security services harassed me. I fled to the Qatari mission in Gaza. Arafat's staff confiscated my private belongings, including my car, which Arafat took for himself.[22] My brother Issa accompanied a Qatari Foreign Ministry delegation to Gaza in order to resolve the stalemate. But, upon his arrival, Palestinian police acting on orders from Arafat arrested him. The PA said they would trade his freedom for mine. Only after the State of Qatar threatened Arafat with financial sanctions and severing of diplomatic ties did the PA give us free passage to leave Gaza for Qatar.
In recent months, there has been some movement on my case. After months of investigation and deliberation, the Palestinian Legislative Council ruled all decisions taken by the PMA on the matter of PIB to be illegal, and hence subsequent actions to be illegitimate.[23] Chiefly because of his mismanagement of the PIB case and citing corruption, in May 2004, the PLC fired Amin Haddad from his position in the Palestinian Monetary Authority.[24] Hassan Khreisheh, Palestinian deputy parliament speaker, said, "This is part of the parliament's war against corruption in the PA."[25] He pointed out that Haddad had been pocketing unauthorized bonuses and profiting illegally from his management of the PIB. In spite of this, Arafat continues to back Haddad. As Khreisheh says, "Arafat resists any change, but pressure is building against him."[26] Arafat's support for Haddad is magnified in his August 5, 2004 letter to the PLC Reform Committee. He stated, "Firing the governor of the PMA would serve our enemies."[27] By "enemies," he was referring to, among others, myself and the deputy prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor ath-Thani, whom he mentioned more than three times before several PLC members.
The PLC also indicted Arafat's relative, Jarrar al-Kudwa, who headed the General Monitoring Board that functions as the PA's Controller's Office, for corruption and misleading the investigation into the seizure of the PIB.[28]
On June 18, 2004, the evening after the Jordanian daily Ad-Dustur published the Khreisheh interview cited above, Arafat ordered his Special Security Apparatus to arrest one of my sympathizers in Ramallah. Thus does Arafat continue to use the Palestinian security forces to harass and intimidate anyone who questions his pocketbook. It is no surprise then that he issued clear instructions to PA officials not to discuss openly the PIB issue. To him, the matter is an extremely important issue.[29]
I have very little faith in the Palestinian judicial system, which is fully under Arafat's thumb. The PA disregards many court decisions unless they serve Arafat's purposes. Chief Justice Zuhair as-Sourani usually acts on Arafat's orders.[30] Arafat and Sourani handpicked Judge Talaat Taweel in order to pass the civil judgment against me in absentia. Taweel has been implicated in criminal cases.[31] Likewise, the PLC's Human Rights Committee condemned Sourani's illegal actions. Earlier, while an attorney general, Sourani issued an arrest warrant against me but failed to produce any legal basis before the PLC; he merely acted on Arafat's verbal instruction.[32] Arafat subsequently promoted him to chief justice.
The continuing decay of the judicial system prompted the Union of Palestinian Lawyers to launch a short boycott of the Palestinian court system on June 28, 2004.[33] Union leader Hatem Abbas remains a vocal critical of judicial corruption. On September 26, 2004, he sent a strongly worded letter regarding Sourani's malpractice.
And just recently, the PLC decided to suspend all sessions from September 7 to October 7, 2004, in an attempt to pressure Arafat to accelerate the approval of a reform package that he publicly adopted on August 18, 2004, and in protest against the Palestinian cabinet for not implementing the decisions and bills approved by the PLC.[34] The PLC wants to stress that the council's decisions have to be taken seriously.

The Cement Scandal

Abuse of power among Arafat's associates and Palestinian ministers is not the exception but rather the rule, as shown by the cement scandal: PA officials were accused of selling cement to Israel for use in constructing the West Bank wall and for Israeli construction in the disputed territories, then pocketing the money.
On February 11, 2004, Israel's Channel 10 television reported that the Al-Quds Cement Factory supplied the cement for these purposes. Television footage showed cement mixers leaving company headquarters and driving to Maale Adumim, an Israeli settlement a few kilometers away. The family of Prime Minister Ahmad Qureia co-owns the Al-Quds company. When confronted by the allegations at a June 2004 press conference in Rome, Qureia denied personal involvement.[35]
On June 9, 2004, the PLC held a debate in which some legislators accused Maher Masri, who held the Palestinian Authority's economy portfolio, of negligence and fraud. Council members called for an investigation on "corruption and tax evasion" charges.[36] Despite the charges, the debate itself was stilted. Palestinian security ejected PLC deputy and anti-corruption campaigner Jawad Saleh from the debate after the PLC speaker prevented nine deputies who had conducted the investigation from participating in the debate.[37]
The scandal reportedly started with an Israeli-German businessman named Zeev Blenski. Blenski sought to import 120,000 tons of Egyptian concrete but, the Egyptian firms, under pressure from Egypt's anti-Israel lobby, refused to provide it. Blenski then turned to the Tarifi Ready Mix Cement Company, owned by Civil Affairs Minister Jamil Tarifi and his brother Jamal and two other Palestinian cement companies, Intisar Barakeh Company for General Trade and the Yusef Barakeh Company for General Trade.[38]
Tarifi got Masri to sign an import permit. In fact, "senior PA officials had received bribes to issue import licenses to several importers and businessmen working on behalf of Israelis."[39] The permits directed the cement to be used to rebuild homes in the Rafah refugee camp, which had been razed by Israeli troops.[40] Instead, Blenski sold the cement to build parts of the separation fence, as well as new houses in Jewish communities in the West Bank and Gaza.[41]
The PLC report concluded that the cement scandal went against PA objectives by indirectly contributing to the separation barrier but also by undermining the Palestinian treasury through the failure to collect tax on the imported cement. Lastly, because the Palestinians still operate under annual cement importation quotas, PA officials' greed undercut the Palestinian construction sector.[42] The PLC passed the report to the district attorney, but no action has yet been taken. Few Palestinians expect that action will be taken.

Surprise in New York

Pressure for reform is waning, and Palestinian democrats are caught in the middle. On February 13, 2004, I arrived at JFK International Airport in New York on my way to testify about PA corruption before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee. It was not my first trip to Washington; I have been there a half dozen times and have never faced any difficulties. My most recent visit had been a year before when I addressed both the Hudson Institute and The Foundation for the Defense of Democracy on democracy and Palestinian reform.[43]
But, this trip was different. Instead of breezing through customs as I had in the past, agents from the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement kept me in custody for seventeen hours. At some point, I was cuffed at the wrists and ankles and repeatedly interrogated by agents who accused me of laundering $6 million from the PIB on behalf of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They let me go, but I now cannot gain entry to the United States. While dozens of academics signed petitions in support of a visa for Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, my case generated only silence in American universities.[44]
Why the change? PA officials passed the charge to the State Department, which forwarded the information uncritically to Homeland Security.[45] This is ironic since the PIB leadership installed after my ouster was implicated in money laundering for Saddam Hussein.[46] The U.S. embassy in Doha has sought to rectify the matter, and I was allowed to reapply for a new visa; the case is still pending. But splashed across the Arabic press, the message was clear: Foggy Bottom supports Arafat and will turn a blind eye toward the concerns of dissidents.[47] It is counterproductive for Washington to indulge Arafat to the extent that they pull the rug out from anyone trying to make a change. Recent chaos in Gaza reinforces that Washington should not put all its eggs in one basket. But, how can Palestinian administration improve if the U.S. government allows Arafat to use its bureaucracy to do his dirty work? Accountability is key.

Conclusion

For four years, there has been violence and unmasked hostility between Israeli and Palestinians. Palestinian security forces and Israeli soldiers, who once jointly patrolled the streets of West Bank and Gaza towns, now fight each other. The conflict has taken a heavy toll on human life and on resources, both among Palestinians and Israelis. Israeli authorities and Palestinian organizations estimate the total dead at almost 4,000 and the wounded at more than 32,000.[48] The ailing Palestinian economy has declined 25 percent in 2003[49] while Israel has lost billions of dollars due to recession in the tourism sector and declining investor confidence. When I see cars blown apart by missiles, buses and cafes on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv destroyed, as well as destruction and death in Gaza and the West Bank, or pictures of grieving mothers and daughters, it is hard to believe that it has been only eleven years since the world celebrated the promise of the Oslo accords. I have problems with Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but Arafat's leadership for too long has used Israel as an excuse for failure to clean our own house.
Arafat's failed leadership is one factor responsible for the evolution of Palestinian extremism and fundamentalism, as well as a culture of death and despair among the Palestinians. While Clinton feted Arafat at the White House as a peace partner, many of us who worked with or lived under Arafat disagreed, seeing him instead as a man exclusively concerned with power, money, and personal gratification. He heads a dictatorial regime staffed by gangsters.[50]I and increasing numbers of Palestinians also blame U.S. and Israeli officials who, in the wake of the Oslo accords, calculated that a Palestinian dictatorship would make a better negotiating partner than a Palestinian democracy.[51]They were very wrong. When growing pressure in the Palestinian territories forced Arafat to find a scapegoat for his political failure, mismanagement, and economic plunder, he turned his guns toward the Israelis.
Reform and Arafat are like oil and water. Arafat instigates violence to deflect blame for his own corruption. No amount of dialogue or diplomatic dinners will change this fact.
On the positive side, there are still persons who can move the peace-building process ahead. Many Palestinians seek change and welcome democratization and good governance. The Palestinians have the wealth, talent, and skills to carry out major functions for the needed transformation. Young economic leaders could spearhead the process since economic growth and development are fruits of peace. The Palestinian private sector and civil society organizations can be mobilized and empowered in order to foster the democratization process.
With the right support, the Palestinians are capable of leading a real transformation towards a democratic state, one characterized by a separation of powers, the rule of law, a free market economy, and a strong civil society.
America should not be discouraged by what is going on in the Middle East today. Signs of freedom and reform abound. But, Washington must look forward and not revert to the formulas of the past. Palestinians want not only to be freed from Israeli control but also, as importantly, to end the occupation by Arafat and his cronies.

Issam Abu Issa, former chairman of the Palestine International Bank, currently resides in Qatar. He is founder of the Palestinian National Coalition for Democracy and Independence, a Palestinian democratic reform movement.

[1] Interview with Palestinian deputy speaker, Ad-Dustur (Amman), June 17, 2004.
[2] Lamis Andoni, "Palestine Banking Trouble," Middle East International, Jan. 28, 2000, p. 10.
[3] "Scandalous PLO Letters Authenticated by Congressional Task Force," Manfred and Anne Lehmann Foundation (New York), at http://www.manfredlehmann.com/sieg429.html.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Khaled Abu Toameh, "Corrupt Palestinian Officials Said Fleeing in Fear for Their Lives," The Israel Report, Jan./Feb. 2001, at http://www.christianactionforisrael.org/isreport.
[7] Matthew Levitt, "PLOCCA 2002: Empty Words," The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Peacewatch #384, May 24, 2002, at http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/watch...02/384.htm.
[8] Mahmoud Abbas, ex-Palestinian prime minister, quoted in Newsweek, June 21, 2004.
[9] Nathan Vardi, "Auditing Arafat," Forbes.com, Mar. 17, 2003, at http://www.forbes.com/global/2003/0317/014.html.
[10] The Washington Post, Dec. 2, 1998.
[11] PLC Special Committee Report (The Corruption Report,) May 1997, at http://www.jmcc.org/politics/pna/plc/plccorup.htm; Stacey Lakind and Yigal Carmon, "The PA Economy," The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Inquiry and Analysis Series, no. 11, Jan. 8, 1999, at http://www.memri.org/bin/opener.cgi?Page...&ID=IA1199.
[12] Arjan El Fassed, "Cement and Corruption," The Electronic Intifada, June 11, 2004, at http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2813.shtml.
[13] Khaled Abu Aker, "Where Has All the Oil Money Gone?" Arabic Media Internet Network, Aug. 11, 2003, at http://www.amin.org.
[14] The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 3, 2003.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ma'ariv (Tel Aviv), Dec. 2, 2002, Mar. 7, 2004.
[17] Press briefing, International Monetary Fund, Dubai, UAE, Sept. 20, 2003, at http://www.imf.org/external/np/tr/2003/tr030920.htm.
[18] The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Public Opinion Poll #5, Aug. 18-21, 2002, at http://www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2002/p5a.html.
[19] Appointment letter signed by Arafat, May 24, 2003, Palestinian Court of First Instance.
[20] PLC decision, no. 626/1/8, Oct. 25, 2003.
[21] Letter, signed by Muhammad Jeham al-Kuwari, then-director of the Office of the Foreign Minister of Qatar, to the late Yassin Shareef, Palestinian ambassador to the state, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qatar, Aug. 30, 2000, athttp://www.palestine77.net/kuwari.pdf.
[22] Focus Magazine (Munich), Dec. 16, 2002, p. 208.
[23] PLC decision, no. 642/1/8, Dec. 30, 2003.
[24] Associated Press, May 5, 2004.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Newsweek International, Aug. 30, 2004.
[27] "Report of the Special Reform Committee," PLC, Aug. 25, 2004, p. 6.
[28] The Jerusalem Post, Jan. 18, 2004.
[29] Tahseen Al Miqati, Palestinian ambassador to Qatar, quoted in Forbes (Arabic edition), May 2004, p. 88.
[30] "Position Paper Re: The Case of Palestine International Bank," Jan. 23, 2004, co-signed by four Palestine-based NGOs: the Mandela Institute for Human Rights, Al-Haq, Al-Quds Human Rights Center, Al-Dustour, athttp://www.palestine77.net/ngoenglish.doc.
[31] Ad-Dustur, June 17, 2004.
[32] "Report of the Human Rights Committee," PLC, Dec. 2, 2003, p. 34.
[33] Al-Quds (Jerusalem), June 27, 2004.
[34] Palestine Media Center, Sept. 2, 2004, at http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=1422.
[35] Arjan El Fassed, "Cement and Corruption," The Electronic Intifada, June 11, 2004, at http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2813.shtml.
[36] Rouhi Fatouh, PLC speaker, quoted in The Jerusalem Times, June 18, 2004.
[37] The Jerusalem Post, June 21, 2004.
[38] The Jewish Tribune (Toronto), June 17, 2004.
[39] The Jerusalem Post, June 10, 2004.
[40] The Jewish Week (New York), June 25, 2004.
[41] Israel National News, June 13, 2004, at http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=63989.
[42] The Jerusalem Times, June 17, 2004.
[43] Feb. 6, 2003.
[44] "Tariq Ramadan: American and European Scholars Respond," Campus-Watch.org, Sept. 23, 2004.
[45] Amber Pawlik, "Exporting Freedom," May 9, 2004, at http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/p/p...050904.htm.
[46] The Peninsula (Doha), Apr. 13, 2003.
[47] "A Critic of Arafat Is Turned away at the U.S. BorderReformer Detained at Kennedy Was Headed to Meet Congress," The New York Sun, Feb. 17, 2004; "Standing up to Arafat," The Fox News, Feb. 23, 2004; Adam Daifallah, "Arabs Who Believe in Democracy," The New York Sun, Feb. 23, 2004; "New York Authorities Detain PIB Chairman for 17 Hours at JFK Airport," Ar-Raya (Doha), Feb. 19, 2004; "Story of the Detention of PIB Chairman at the JFK Airport on Allegations of Financing Hamas and Jihad," Al-Hayat (London), Feb. 16, 2004.
[48] Casualty updates from Palestinian Red Crescent Society, at http://www.palestinercs.org/crisistables...igures.htm, and Magen David Adom of Israel, at http://www.magendavidadom.org/casualtyit...?Update=41.
[49] Palestine Investment Promotion Agency, at http://www.pipa.gov.ps/economic_indicators.asp.
[50] Rafiq an-Natsheh, former PLC speaker, quoted in Asharq (Doha), July 20, 2004.
[51] Natan Sharansky, "From Helsinki to Oslo," Journal of International Security Affairs, Summer 2001, at http://www.jinsa.org/articles/articles.h...,1383,1690; "Yasser Arafat: An Asset or a Burden. A Confidential Israeli Document," summarized by Mohammed Salah al-Attar, Nida Younis, trans., Ma'ariv, July 6, 2001, athttp://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archiv...Younis.htm.

From the Middle East Quarterly.

[Magda Hassan]

Yes, it by no means an open and shut case it was Israel as being directly responsible for the poisoning. However, it certainly benefits some Israelis. But his death also benefits some Palestinians and Arabs. And of course some others close and corrupt near to Arafat can be used by Israel either wittingly or unwittingly.

[Peter Lemkin]

Yes, it by no means an open and shut case it was Israel as being directly responsible for the poisoning. However, it certainly benefits some Israelis. But his death also benefits some Palestinians and Arabs. And of course some others close and corrupt near to Arafat can be used by Israel either wittingly or unwittingly.

It will take a very excellent team of detectives and cooperation [which will NOT be forthcoming from IDF who controlled all access in/out of the compound Arafat was in when he was poisoned] in order to find who likely did it. It takes only a very small amount of Po-210 [which would not be noticed by anyone without an alpha-detecting scintillation counter and it could easily be shielded in lead until the last few moments]. It was likely introduced in food, drink, toothpaste or medicine and the person giving that to Arafat very well may not have know of its presence...or they could have. As the IDF, Israel in general and some parts of the PLO don't care to 'explore' who done it...it will be a long and hard slog which might not turn up a suspect...but who knows. Somehow, I suspect the USA also has reasons to not help, possibly to actually thwart such an investigation.......

[Magda Hassan]

Evidence does not prove Arafat poisoning - Russian report

Updated: 10:58, Friday, 08 November 2013



A Russian report quoted by Palestinian investigators has found insufficient evidence to support the theory that Yasser Arafat died in 2004 by polonium poisoning.
Samples were extracted from Arafat's corpse last November by Swiss, French and Russian experts after an al-Jazeera documentary revealed unusually high amounts of the deadly Polonium isotope on his clothes.
"The outcome of the comprehensive report on the levels of Polonium-210 and the development of his illness does not give sufficient evidence to support the decision that Polonium-210 caused acute radiation syndrome leading to death," said Dr Abdullah Bashir, quoting the conclusions of the Russian report.
But Dr Bashir said that both the Swiss and Russian reports found "large amounts" of the radioactive isotope in his remains.
The Russian findings were significantly more cautious than Swiss conclusions, published this week, which said that its tests "moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with Polonium-210".
Arafat, a guerrilla leader who became the first Palestinian president, contracted a sudden and mysterious illness while surrounded by Israeli tanks in his compound in Ramallah.
Palestinians have long blamed Israel for his death, a charge it denies, but a local investigation committee has made little tangible progress in explaining the case.
Israel and the Palestinians resumed peace talks in July to try to resolve their long conflict and live side-by-side in two sovereign states.
Separately, Palestinians have said Israel is the "only suspect" in the death.
"We say that Israel is the prime and only suspect in the case of Yasser Arafat's assassination, and we will continue to carry out a thorough investigation to find out and confirm all the details and all elements of the case," Palestinian inquiry chief Tawfiq Tirawi said.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/1108/485425-...ng-russia/

[Magda Hassan]

Yasser Arafat: a farce in Ramallah

The Palestinian Authority has for years ducked the awkward questions about Arafat's death. Don't rely on it to find the truth

• • Clayton Swisher
    
    
  • The Guardian, Saturday 9 November 2013 05.18 AEST
    

Palestinian security officers and mourners gather around the grave of the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after the funeral at his compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah. on 12 November 2004. Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP

At a packed conference in Ramallah today, the retired general Tawfik Tirawi, once head of the Palestinian Authority's feared West Bank intelligence, squarely pointed the finger at Israel for the assassination of Yasser Arafat. There are lots of reasons to suspect Israeli responsibility. The former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was vocal over the years in admitting he had tried but failed to kill Arafat. Israel had famously botched its 1997 attempt to poison the political leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal. It appears logical for the PA under Israeli military siege in the Muqata when Arafat suddenly became violently ill on 12 October 2004 to claim Israel alone is to blame.
But there are many other possibilities that Tirawi prefers to ignore. He himself was with Arafat during the siege; he was wanted by Israel, the CIA was shunning him, and he was accused of orchestrating suicide attacks against Israelis. That he was in close proximity when Arafat fell ill makes him at best a witness. For him to lead the investigation now is almost as farcical as the PA's entire approach to date.
For the outside world Arafat was a very cold case until al-Jazeera broadcast its documentary What Killed Arafat? in July 2012. The PA had formed a committee to examine his death immediately after his passing. But it had several changes in leadership, and did little more than rail against Israel, pursuing nothing by way of forensics. Correspondence obtained by al-Jazeera shows that the doctor in charge of the PA cold case review, Abdullah Bashir, wrote a single letter to French authorities Arafat died in a French military hospital in 2009 asking for further information. The French stated that all their files had already been released to Suha Arafat, the widow, and Nasser Kidwa, the nephew.
That was it. No one had bothered to ask Suha the elemental question: did she have any materials that might yield forensic clues? That was the first question scientists had for me when I approached them at the Lausanne University Centre for Legal Medicine. When I asked Suha, she told me about a green gym bag she kept all these years. Arafat had taken it with him to France in his dying days. She was sceptical the Swiss would find anything, but once polonium was detected, she became unrelenting in her demands to go to the very end.
The exhumation of Arafat was not supposed to happen. The PA did not like the fact that Suha sought French jurisdiction. It preferred the UN security council, a curious choice given that it has almost never passed a resolution that benefits Palestinians. The PA also demanded the Arab League investigate, which again amounted to little more than platitudes.
But when the French government formally demanded access to Arafat's body, it faced a conundrum it had sought to avoid for years. It was the PA that refused to push for an autopsy that most likely would have resolved this mystery years earlier. In a taped interview Nasser Kidwa told me: "I would think this would have meant the end of the peace process, as it stood at that time … because the Palestinian people would have seen a great crime, the crime of the killing of their leader."
Instead, the PA chose to use the case as a political weapon in its quest for negotiations with Israel. This also helped it avoid a painful, if not self-evident question: was one of its own involved? Sure, the Israelis controlled the perimeter. But as food, water and medicines were allowed in, a microscopic amount of lethal Polonium 210 would not have been hard to get inside. At a very minimum, his closest aides and bodyguards failed to prevent someone from introducing polonium into Arafat's system, whether by ingestion, injection, or inhalation. Could one of his aides have delivered the dose, with Israeli technical support?
This is why the idea of Arafat's closest associates conducting their own investigation is inappropriate. For the time being, the proper investigators are the French authorities. Three investigating magistrates will now have the opportunity to review the Swiss testimony and incorporate their own forensic conclusions into the body of evidence. While in Ramallah last November, the French were refused permission by the PA to question its officials without submitting questions in writing. If the PA is serious about finding the truth of who killed their iconic leader, it must afford the French unfettered access.
If not, the "who killed Arafat" question will remain unresolved, and little more than a convenient political tool.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree...-questions

[Magda Hassan]

I've been thinking about Arafat's death, the timing and what was happening. He had not always been wanted dead by Israel. I remember some long ago conversations with Israeli friends who during their IDF days told of finding Arafat and some of his people in hiding. It was a surprise to them, they were not looking for him, or at least they weren't told they were, but the higher ups told them not to do anything. This happened on another occasion as well. Something about Tunisia, though what the IDF was doing in Tunisia I don't know. So it seems Israel knew where he was and was content to leave him there. Protected possibly. Then he gets really sick suddenly in mid October 2004. So what was happening around then? Why the need to absolutely and definitively throw Arafat away? What was he stopping? Was he really not corrupt enough despite his overseas bank account above that he could not be bought? Or maybe the price too high? From an US/Israeli/Palestinian and Arab POV qui bono and qui bono at this time and not another time? And why the need for an unexplainable death. He had been interred for years until this recent doco by Al Jazeera. And would have remained so if it were not for his widow and AJ journalist. I remember there was the creation and rise of Hamas as a wedge to divide the Palestinians and weaken Fatah though I can't recall the year that came to be.

[Peter Lemkin]

Evidence does not prove Arafat poisoning - Russian report

Updated: 10:58, Friday, 08 November 2013



A Russian report quoted by Palestinian investigators has found insufficient evidence to support the theory that Yasser Arafat died in 2004 by polonium poisoning.
Samples were extracted from Arafat's corpse last November by Swiss, French and Russian experts after an al-Jazeera documentary revealed unusually high amounts of the deadly Polonium isotope on his clothes.
"The outcome of the comprehensive report on the levels of Polonium-210 and the development of his illness does not give sufficient evidence to support the decision that Polonium-210 caused acute radiation syndrome leading to death," said Dr Abdullah Bashir, quoting the conclusions of the Russian report.
But Dr Bashir said that both the Swiss and Russian reports found "large amounts" of the radioactive isotope in his remains.
The Russian findings were significantly more cautious than Swiss conclusions, published this week, which said that its tests "moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with Polonium-210".
Arafat, a guerrilla leader who became the first Palestinian president, contracted a sudden and mysterious illness while surrounded by Israeli tanks in his compound in Ramallah.
Palestinians have long blamed Israel for his death, a charge it denies, but a local investigation committee has made little tangible progress in explaining the case.
Israel and the Palestinians resumed peace talks in July to try to resolve their long conflict and live side-by-side in two sovereign states.
Separately, Palestinians have said Israel is the "only suspect" in the death.
"We say that Israel is the prime and only suspect in the case of Yasser Arafat's assassination, and we will continue to carry out a thorough investigation to find out and confirm all the details and all elements of the case," Palestinian inquiry chief Tawfiq Tirawi said.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/1108/485425-...ng-russia/

There is something totally suspicious about the Russian report, IMO. They got samples from the same tissues as the Swiss team, yet come up with LESS Polonium in Arafat's body than would be expected in any and all humans on Earth. I don't know the reason, but it might well be related to the fact that over 90% of all Po-210 is produced in Russia and Russia ordered the murder of at least one person they were 'unhappy with' using Po-210 two years after Arafat's death.

[Peter Lemkin]

I've been thinking about Arafat's death, the timing and what was happening. He had not always been wanted dead by Israel. I remember some long ago conversations with Israeli friends who during their IDF days told of finding Arafat and some of his people in hiding. It was a surprise to them, they were not looking for him, or at least they weren't told they were, but the higher ups told them not to do anything. This happened on another occasion as well. Something about Tunisia, though what the IDF was doing in Tunisia I don't know. So it seems Israel knew where he was and was content to leave him there. Protected possibly. Then he gets really sick suddenly in mid October 2004. So what was happening around then? Why the need to absolutely and definitively throw Arafat away? What was he stopping? Was he really not corrupt enough despite his overseas bank account above that he could not be bought? Or maybe the price too high? From an US/Israeli/Palestinian and Arab POV qui bono and qui bono at this time and not another time? And why the need for an unexplainable death. He had been interred for years until this recent doco by Al Jazeera. And would have remained so if it were not for his widow and AJ journalist. I remember there was the creation and rise of Hamas as a wedge to divide the Palestinians and weaken Fatah though I can't recall the year that came to be.

Building a rather basic timeline just before and during Arafat's illness might enlighten. But then, it could have been related to an event or 'deal' or event or partnership that has not yet become public. Good forensic work might [and might not] be able to use standard detective work to point to the guilty persons or grouping. Perhaps this will be a mini-Dallas and evolve into multiple competing theories - with the real villains encouraging all the alternative ones. I wouldn't expect anything one can sink one's teeth into anytime soon. Not always, but usually it is the peacemakers who get killed. Warfare, endless warfare, serves many - for power and money....as well as geopolitical aims.

[Magda Hassan]

They could have blown him up in a car bomb like they did to many others. Or shot like the Lebanese PM. A targeted missile on his residence or car. His compound could have been one of hundreds of 'collateral damage' in some sort of Operation Cast Iron by another name. But they chose polonium so he would die slowly and possibly untracably unitl now.