The Palestinian Money Trail
(Updated October 2003)
Numerous reports have documented the suffering of the
Palestinian people in the disputed territories. This is a human tragedy
that is the direct result of the failure of the Palestinian leadership
and the corruption of the Palestinian
Authority (PA).
The principal reason for the worsening plight of the
Palestinians is the strategic choice Yasser
Arafat made to engage in violence rather than negotiations. Following
his rejection of Israel’s offer of an independent Palestinian
state, Arafat escalated the level of terror. Neither he nor prime ministers Abu Mazen or Abu Ala have
fulfilled their road map commitment
to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure and end the violence. Meanwhile,
the Palestinians’ standard of living has declined dramatically.
The problems facing the Palestinian people and the
PA economy are not due to a lack of resources. Instead of feeding, housing,
and employing Palestinians, significant amounts of financial aid have
been siphoned off by Yasser
Arafat and other PA officials for their personal benefit.
The Palestinians living inside the Palestinian Authority
have been given far greater international financial support than most
other suffering peoples. Since the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993,
the U.S. government has committed more than $1.3 billion in economic
assistance to the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since the
end of 2000, Arab states have transferred to the PA monthly financial
aid of $45 million (since April 2002 this sum was increased to $55 million).
The EU transfers to the PA approximately $9 million monthly. By the
end of 2001, the Palestinians had received $4 billion (the figure is
now closer to $5.5 billion) since the 1993 Oslo agreements. This is
the equivalent of $1,330 per Palestinian. By comparison, the Marshall
Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II provided $272 per European
(in today's dollars).
These PA revenues do not include the $8-14 billion
in assets the Palestine Liberation
Organization is believed to have accumulated over the years through
drug trafficking, illegal arms dealing, money laundering, fraud, extortion,
and legal investments.
We hear a great deal about the suffering of the Palestinian
refugees, but most of these refugees live in camps under the direct
control of Yasser Arafat.
With all of these resources, why hasn’t he managed to build a
single home for one refugee family? Where is all the money, and why
hasn’t it been used to help the Palestinian people?
A 2003 report by the International
Monetary Fund revealed that Yasser
Arafat diverted approximately $900 million from the PA Finance Ministry
into secret accounts that he alone controlled. Forbes ranked Arafat number 6 on a list of the richest “kings, queens,
and despots” with a fortune of $300 million.
Jawad Ghussein, former Secretary General of the Palestinian
National Fund, told Haaretz in August 2002 that Arafat “took
aid money and contributions that were earmarked for the Palestinian
people to his own account.” On June 5, 2002, the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan published documents showing that Arafat had deposited
$5.1 million from Arab aid funds into his personal account to support
his wife and daughter who live in Paris and Switzerland.
In 1996, $326 million disappeared from the PA and the Palestinian Legislative Council established a commission to investigate the loss. The subsequent report
concluded that nearly 40 percent of the PA’s $800 million budget
had been lost through corruption and mismanagement. The PA’s comptroller
wrote: “The overall picture is one of a Mafia-style government,
where the main point of being in public office is to get rich quick.”
This only tells a small part of the story of the criminal
behavior of Arafat and other PA officials. A study by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld of the American Center for Democracy noted that
senior PA figures, in cooperation with Hamas and other Palestinian
terrorist organizations, have made millions from counterfeiting
operations involving CD’s, DVD’s, clothing, cosmetics, and
schoolbooks.
The PA has also engaged in the counterfeiting of Israeli,
Jordanian, and Kuwaiti currency. In April 2002, the Israeli army found
large quantities of counterfeit Israeli currency in Arafat’s compound
in Ramallah.
Ehrenfeld reported that some PA officials engage in
shakedowns of the population. These include everything from arbitrary
charges of traffic violations to demands of large bribes to kidnaping
for money. A businessman from Tulkarm, for example, was forced to pay
$100,000 for the release of a brother who was arrested by the PA security
service for “collaboration” with Israel.
Mohammed Dahlan,
former head of the PA security services in the Gaza
Strip, supplemented his salary by collecting protection money from
suppliers of oil, cigarettes, and other commodities, receiving kickbacks
for issuing licenses, and demanding border crossing fees. Dahlan’s
counterpart in the West Bank, Jibril Rajoub, was similarly
reported to have extorted protection money from oil distributors, to
have received kickbacks from the Jericho casino, and to have stolen
intellectual property.
Forbes wrote that Arafat “feasted on all
sorts of funds flowing into the Palestinian Authority, including aid
money, Israeli tax transfers, and revenue from a casino and Coca-Cola
bottler. Much of the money appears to have gone to pay off others.”
Arafat’s slush funds allow him to buy loyalty
and maintain his dictatorial regime. For example, he gave $50,000 for
the wedding of the daughter of then cabinet minister Nabil
Amr, doubled the living expenses of the son of minister Nabil
Shaath while he went to school in France, and paid $100,000 for
the deputy in charge of the information portfolio for construction of
a home.
Records seized by Israel showed that hundreds of activists
in Fatah and local branches
of terrorist organizations, such as the Tanzim and the Al
Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, were put on the list of PA employees so they
drew salaries that allowed them to engage in attacks against Israel
without having the worry about earning a living.
Arafat has created 27 monopolies to insure that he
and his loyalists profit from every industry affecting the lives of
Palestinians, such as cement, flour, oil, cigarettes, iron, and commercial
sand. For example, Arafat’s economic advisor Muhammad Rashid,
together with Suha Arafat (Arafat’s wife) and communications advisor
Nabil Abu-Roudayna, co-own pharmaceutical and apparel monopolies. Rashid
and another Arafat advisor, Hassan Asfour, co-own an oil monopoly. Onetime
Planning and Cooperation Minister Nabil
Shaath, (accused by a Palestinian Legislative Council investigation
of embezzling ministry funds) has a computer monopoly; and Abu
Ala (the new Prime Minister) is co-owner of cigarette and dairy
monopolies.
The Palestinian people deserve better. But their plight
will not improve by sending more money to Arafat. Their suffering will
end only when representative leaders come to power who have the will
and the capability to reform the corrupt Palestinian Authority, dismantle
the terrorist networks, and engage in peace negotiations.
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