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| quote: | Originally posted by hardcore trancer
he might have been the richest in the past,but now it seems like he hardly has a place to sleep,and thats based on what I've seen on tv and such.
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Hehe only cuz the Israelis are such hardasses on him and won't let him go anywhere . His wife is most certainly living the life in Paris at the expense of Palestinian taxpayers ..
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Yasser Arafat ‘has £1.8bn fortune’
WILLIAM TINNING November 07 2003
A TELEVISION documentary is to claim that Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian president, has amassed a personal fortune of up to £1.8bn and his wife is given tens of thousands of pounds each week to fund a lavish lifestyle in Paris.
The £1.8bn estimate of Arafat's personal fortune is almost six times higher than had been previously been touted.
According to a report in the New York Daily News, the CBS show 60 Minutes will claim on Sunday that he has amassed a personal fortune of between £602m and £1.8bn.
It will also claim that Arafat's wife, Suha, 40, who lives away from the struggles of her homeland, is given more than £60,000 a month from Palestinian Authority funds.
Lesley Stahl, a CBS correspondent, told the newspaper that Raymonda Tawil, Mrs Arafat's mother, is apparently enjoying life in Paris at the expense of the Palestinian
taxpayers.
"I have visited Suha's mother, and she lives very well," Stahl said.
Mrs Arafat lives in Paris with Arafat's eight-year-old daughter, Zahwa. The daughter of a wealthy Christian family, Mrs Arafat converted to Islam after her secret marriage to Arafat in 1990.
While some Palestinians have criticised her decision to remain outside their homeland, Mrs Arafat told an Arabic magazine last year that she was "prepared to return any moment" if her husband so wished.
Despite efforts from within and outwith the Palestinian Authority to oust him, Arafat, 74, still controls the purse strings and the hearts and minds of the Palestinians.
He remains confined to two rooms in his demolished headquarters in Ramallah as his former negotiating partners, the United States and Israel, plead with other countries to isolate him.
Arafat has run the Palestinian Liberation Organisation since 1969.
Five years later the Arab League declared the PLO "the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people".
In 1996, Arafat was swept into office in elections monitored by western observers, including Jimmy Carter, the former US president.
It is claimed that Arafat controls most of the £3.3bn in international aid that has flowed to the Palestinian Authority over the past nine years, during which time he has established a system of financial aid that guarantees the support of a host of Palestinian factions.
Last March, Forbes magazine claimed Arafat had a personal fortune of about £181m that was stashed away in secret Swiss bank accounts.
At the time the Jerusalem Post wrote that he had "done more than his fair share of plundering his own people, treating their public resources as his personal ATM machine to be looted at will".
In 1997, the Israeli media claimed he had a secret bank account in Tel Aviv. |
Now granted I take everything I read with a grain of salt but I have no doubts in my mind that Arafat is bad for the Palestinan people. He is extremely smart, and extremely manipulative ... as evidenced by his ability to stay in power for SUCH a long time when Israeli PMs (and what looks to be Palestinian Pms) have come and gone ...
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To be honest it is time for a change meaning no Arafat and no Sharon.I think as long as we have these two around,it'll bring nothing good to neither sides,but thats just my opinion ofcourse. |
I'll agree. However, personally I think Sharon is a good matchup against Arafat . The two were meant for each other ... Rabin was no match against Arafat's duplicity.
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Retro ...
Last edited by occrider on Nov-12-2003 at 18:17
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