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Arafat's 'Personal' Wealth No Surprise To Israelis, Pal


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Arafat's 'Personal' Wealth No Surprise To Israelis, Palestinians

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - The fact that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat probably has at least hundreds of millions of dollars tucked away in private accounts while many of his people are unemployed and starving comes as no surprise to Israelis and Palestinians alike, representatives here said on Tuesday.

Arafat appeared last week on the business magazine Forbes' annual list of the wealthiest "Kings, Queens and Despots." With an estimated $300 million in private holdings, Arafat placed sixth on the list.

Dr. Ra'anan Gissin, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Arafat had gotten rich off terrorism and that the Forbes report only backed up what Israel has said for years.

"He's made a fortune out of terrorism," Gissin said in a telephone interview. "Terrorism is a profitable business in our part of the world.

"[The Forbes listing] corroborates what we've been saying all along. Not only is Arafat wicked...to his people but he's corrupt," Gissin said.

Last year, during Operation Defensive Shield, Israeli troops raided Arafat's Mukata compound in Ramallah.

They carted away truckloads of documents, some of which showed Arafat's involvement in financial disbursements to Palestinians directly connected to terrorism.

Israel has claimed that European Union (EU) funds have gone into the coffers to directly finance terrorism. The EU recently opened an investigation into the use of monies it has given over the years.

U.S. monies have been channeled through the U.S. Agency for International Development, although some of those allocations are also questionable.

According to Forbes, Arafat likely amassed his wealth during the last several years by skimming off the top of international financial aid for the Palestinians, tax revenues from Israel and profits from Palestinian interests.

"It's ludicrous, the apparent gap between the riches he possesses and the poverty of his people. Why doesn't he give his riches to his people?" Gissin asked. "The more he amasses the more he uses it for terror."

The money does not benefit average Palestinians, Gissin said. That is why Israel withheld tax revenues for the last two years, he added. Israel wanted to make sure the money went to the Palestinian people and not for terrorism.

According to Gissin, the only way to reform the area controlled by the Palestinian Authority would be to take power away from Arafat. One way to do that, he said, would be to eliminate Arafat's control of the money.

"That would have put him in the proper place and not enable him to finance terrorism," Gissin said.

The Palestinians themselves don't react to reports of such scandals, "mostly out of fear," he added.

Analyst George Khleifi, deputy director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al-Quds University, said Forbes' listing of Arafat's wealth comes as no surprise to most Palestinians.

"The Palestinians know that there [are] two kinds of money," Khleifi said. The first fund is the "official one," derived from taxes and donations from abroad, which goes into Palestinian Authority (PA) sponsored projects, he said.

But Palestinians also know there is "another kind of fund," Khleifi asserted. Arafat has only been president of the PA for the last eight years, but before that he was the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) for decades, which necessitated the existence of other funds, he added.

"President Arafat has another fund," Khleifi said, but it is not clear if those are "personal" funds. "I would be astonished if they are personal [because] he was the leader of a revolution [not a businessman]."

"My feeling, the feeling of most of the Palestinians is that it's time to unify those [parallel] funds," he said.

According to Khleifi, the Palestinian Legislative Council dealt with corruption within government ministries in the PA system five or six years ago.

Khleifi's boss, Daoud Kuttab, director of the Institute of Modern Media and a well-known journalist, was arrested because he insisted on broadcasting live the proceedings of the legislative council dealing with corruption, Khleifi said.

Kuttab was released after a short while due to intense international pressure because he had extensive contacts with Western journalists and officials.

Palestinians believe the issue of the parallel funds must be dealt with, he said. "Parallel funds lead necessarily to a system that will be corrupted in the end."

As PLO Chairman from 1969, Arafat built his organization into the wealthiest and largest terrorist group in the world.

Still the head of the PLO when the Oslo Accords were signed with Israel in 1993, Arafat was elected president of the PA and received pledges for billions of dollars in aid from Western countries including the U.S.

Because recipients of U.S. aid must have open books, the General Accounting Office of Congress was asked to provide a report on PLO assets and sources of income, however the PLO was not forthcoming with the information.

At the time, the peace process under the patronage of former U.S. President Bill Clinton was well underway. When the GAO finished its report, it was classified as "secret." But sources familiar with the report were quoted as saying that it showed the PLO had more than $10 billion in assets.

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fuck arafat! he wired $5 million to his wife in paris last year, right when the violence in the west bank was at a really high peak..he needs to give back all that money to the people he's representing...that old dirty bastard.....

the palestinians need a new, dynamic leader...arafat has gone soft.

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Originally posted by sassa

fuck arafat! he wired $5 million to his wife in paris last year, right when the violence in the west bank was at a really high peak..he needs to give back all that money to the people he's representing...that old dirty bastard.....

the palestinians need a new, dynamic leader...arafat has gone soft.

PALESTINIANS NEED TO LEAVE THE POOR ISRAELIS ALONE, THEY SHOULD JUST BE HAPPY WITH WHAT THEY WERE ORIGINALLY OFFERED.

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Originally posted by dnice35

PALESTINIANS NEED TO LEAVE THE POOR ISRAELIS ALONE, THEY SHOULD JUST BE HAPPY WITH WHAT THEY WERE ORIGINALLY OFFERED.

what they were offered was peanuts. poor israelis??????

compared to palestinians,they definitely are not poor....

i never saw any homeless people in israel...

whereas 30% of palestinian children are malnourished.

get your facts straight.

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Originally posted by sassa

what they were offered was peanuts. poor israelis??????

compared to palestinians,they definitely are not poor....

i never saw any homeless people in israel...

whereas 30% of palestinian children are malnourished.

get your facts straight.

30%..... shit thats not bad at all....., considering all their muslim BROTHERS are aiding them *sarcasm*

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Originally posted by sassa

what they were offered was peanuts. poor israelis??????

compared to palestinians,they definitely are not poor....

i never saw any homeless people in israel...

whereas 30% of palestinian children are malnourished.

get your facts straight.

BY THE WAY I DIDNT MEAN POOR IN THAT SENSE. > $$

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Originally posted by dnice35

BY THE WAY I DIDNT MEAN POOR IN THAT SENSE. > $$

i know you didn't...

i respect your comments less and less..you really have no idea what's going on, nor do you know the basics of both religions and both ethnicities.

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Originally posted by sassa

i know you didn't...

i respect your comments less and less..you really have no idea what's going on, nor do you know the basics of both religions and both ethnicities.

like i said in another thread I dont believe in religion, just God....

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Originally posted by dnice35

like i said in another thread I dont believe in religion, just God....

then watch your comments about the faith. if you don't know what you're talking about, don't talk shit! period...:rolleyes:

:blown:

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Originally posted by sassa

then watch your comments about the faith. if you don't know what you're talking about, don't talk shit! period...:rolleyes:

:blown:

WHY SHOULD i WATCH MY COMMENTS WHEN i DONT BELIEVE IN IT? YOU ARE A FUCKING HYPOCRITE..... WHATEVER HAPPEN TO MY FREEDOM OF SPEECH YOU FUCKING RAT TURD?

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Originally posted by dnice35

WHY SHOULD i WATCH MY COMMENTS WHEN i DONT BELIEVE IN IT? YOU ARE A FUCKING HYPOCRITE..... WHATEVER HAPPEN TO MY FREEDOM OF SPEECH YOU FUCKING RAT TURD?

you lose it when you start using insults instead of rationale to make your points. watch your mouth.

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