In the early morning of October 29, 2004, palestinian Prime Minister Qurey and incumbent President Mahmoud Abbas whispered to Arafat, who was about to travel to France for medical treatment: "What about that money?" You may not be able to return to your home country for a short time after you leave, and we need funds for the government to operate. At this point, Arafat, who was weak but still sober-minded, listened, groped and took a check from his pocket, handed it to Kulai, and said, "Thank you great Allah, I am still alive, don't worry." ”
Former Palestinian Supreme Leader Arafat
After the death of former Palestinian supreme leader Arafat on 11 November 2004, his legacy of vast assets, the amount of which is still unknown, has sparked a confrontation between his wife, Suha, and the Palestinian government, causing speculation.
Arafat's family of three
Arafat's life was characterized by poverty, but his 33-year-old wife, Suha, and daughter, who lived in France for many years, lived in Paris in a luxurious way, once wrapping an entire floor in a high-end hotel in Paris for her team to live for more than a year. He also bought a luxury apartment in the wealthy area near the Champs Elysées, and often went to paris fashion shows with a designer brand. After Arafat's death, Suha asked to inherit Arafat's legacy, but the Palestinian negotiators responded only calmly: "Madam, Arafat's life and property belong only to Palestine." ”
Arafat's widow, Sukha Arafat
Arafat's aides often joked that Awon was like a "mobile bookcase," with a few small notebooks tucked into his pockets in his green military uniform, and he was ready to record important details of his political life. Palestinian officials said the notebooks recorded all the experiences of Arafat's life and details of Arafat's own financial situation. Palestinian lawmaker Hassan Korich has said: "The property left behind by Arafat is the money of the Palestinian people, and I hope that parliament will investigate." Unfortunately, to this day, the whereabouts of these notebooks remain a mystery, perhaps known only to Arafat himself.
Arafat and Gaddafi (left)
During Arafat's nearly 40 years as palestinian supreme leader, he weaved a very large network of funds and deliberately let his cronies manage the funds separately, rather than leaving it to one person to take care of it individually, so as to prevent one person from being able to say the whole money alone.
Arafat and Abbas (right)
Arafat, who lived frugally in his daily life, managed the vast amounts of aid the international community gave to Palestine to his cronies, rather than the Palestinian government. In Arafat's words: In order to avoid another shortage of funds when the Palestine Liberation Movement encounters difficulties, Fatah needs to use these funds independently for its activities.
Saddam Hussein (left) with Arafat
Beginning in the late 1970s, large amounts of external aid began to flow to Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization, which received more than $2 billion in financial assistance from Arab countries alone between 1979 and 1989. In the early 1990s, after the Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement, Western countries also began to provide substantial financial assistance to Palestine; the Palestine Liberation Organization's overseas investment projects and bank accounts were also carried out and registered in the name of Arafat's cronies.
Arafat went to Paris to see a doctor
Arafat has a large number of financial advisers, the most famous of which is Muhammad Rashid, who is An Iraqi Kurd and is Arafat's most trusted financial adviser. This person helped Arafat manage a large number of overseas accounts and assets, and invested in various industries, such as the Near East Telephone Company and the Coca-Cola Company factory in Ramallah. By the end of Arafat's rise to power, Rashid's role had gone beyond financial advisers, and he was sent as an intermediary in Libya to negotiate informally with the United States and Britain on the Libyan Weapons Abolition Program.
The Palestinian Government meets
After Arafat's death on November 11, 2004, Palestinian officials said it was clearly abnormal that the PLO had received at least $6.5 billion in funding over the past 40 years, but at the same time the Palestinian government was on the brink of crisis due to a shortage of funds. Abdel Saleh, then a member of The Pakistani Legislative Council, called for an investigation into Mohammed Rashid, Arafat's financial adviser who led the PLO's funding efforts, but Rashid was nowhere to be found. On June 7, 2012, the Palestinian Special Court against Corruption tried Mohammed Rashid in absentia and found rashed millions of dollars embezzled and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
Known as the safest Swiss bank in the world
Among the many financial advisers, Arafat's partnership with Yosi Kinnosa, a former official in Israel's security apparatus, was the most bizarre, and as an old rival, the two did not care about their previous suspicions, Kinnosa helped Arafat open an account in a Swiss bank and supervised an account of more than $200 million as Arafat's standby fund account, which at its peak had more than $300 million deposited. When Kinnosa died of illness in January 2004, Arafat praised him for his "dedication to Palestinian-Israeli peace and security."
Palestinian-Israeli conflict
On 30 September 2000, when large-scale bloodshed broke out between Palestine and Israel, the Israeli Government cut off the transfer of tax revenues from Palestinians working in Israel to Palestine (Palestinians worked abroad, and foreign governments needed to levy an additional 5% tax to transfer to the Palestinian Government), and the Palestinian Government fell into a serious financial crisis. At the same time, because Arafat has always been reluctant to disclose the amount of PLO property, Pakistan and the international community have strongly called on Arafat to disclose the funding situation of the Palestine Liberation Organization and to centralize the income and expenditure of all PLO funds into the Palestinian Government fund account.
Arafat meets with Fayyads (first from left).
Because Palestine receives nearly $1 billion in economic aid from the international community almost every year, arafat appointed Salam Fayyad as Palestinian Finance Minister, initiating the Palestinian Transparency and Accountability Program, led by Jim Prince, director of the investigation department at PricewaterhouseCoopers. The reform plan, which aims to consolidate Palestinian funds into a separate fund account controlled by the self-government, would put an end to the division of Palestinian armed forces that amassed and redistributed the income of funds on their own.
Salam Fayyad
In August 2002, the program was officially implemented, and many Arafat cronies, including Rashid, were investigated. After more than two years of investigative audits, Azmi Shebi, chairman of the Economic Committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said that "there are some PLO assets that have not been included in the accounts of the Palestinian government funds, and the information revealed by Arafat and Rashid in their investigation is selective, and there are currently 1 billion US dollars that have not entered the fund accounts, and some of the money has been used by Arafat's pro-credit to buy fixed assets such as real estate".
Needless to say, Arafat has established an unrivalled personal prestige and absolute authority within the Palestinian homeland. He holds the financial power of Palestine, and no one has the right to withdraw money without his signature. At a meeting of Fatah's top brass in February 2004, some senior Fatah officials demanded that Arafat disclose his finances, and Arafat pushed them back with a single word, replying, "I don't have any assets." ”
Forbes magazine's 2003 fortune was estimated at $300 million, ranking 6th on the world's top of the world's wealth list, while some Israeli officials believe Arafat's personal wealth was as high as $11 billion. But how much money Arafat left behind, I am afraid that no one will ever know.