PA mission to Colombia calls for Israel's destruction
Official
PA mission to State of Colombia tweets quote from Arafat saying Arab
goal is end of Israel. 'We don't want peace. We want WAR.'
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The official
Palestinian Authority mission to Colombia posted a call for the
complete destruction of the State of Israel on its Twitter account
Thursday night.
The PA mission
posted a Spanish translation of a quote from former PA leader Yasser
Arafat. “Our goal is the end of Israel, and there can be no
compromises or mediations…. We don’t want peace. We want WAR and
victory — Yasser Arafat."
המשלחת של הרשות הפלסטינית לקולומביה,בציטוט "גלוי לב" בחשבון הטוויטר מפי יאסר ערפאת : "סופה של ישראל הוא המטרה, איננו רוצים שלום" @kann_newspic.twitter.com/e992w5BEKM
— Eran Cicurel (@EranCicurel) October 19, 2017
The
quote was removed following a report by Israel's Channel
1 News. The
mission has offered no explanation or apology for the quote.
Israel's
Foreign Ministry condemned the tweet and said that the quote
illustrated Arafat's legacy of hatred and death.
"A
quote from one of Arafat’s statements clearly illustrates to us the
hatred that was always his lot and the legacy of hostility he left
behind,” the ministry told Channel
1.
“In his life and death, his entire legacy is death, hatred and
disgust.”
Israeli
Ambassador to Colombia Marco Sermoneta told Channel
1 that
the embassy had raised the matter with the Colombian authorities. “We
brought the matter of the Palestinian mission’s tweet to the
attention of the government in Bogata. Anyone who believes everything
the Palestinians say must also believe them when they say this.”
THE CON-MAN ARAFAT GREATEST OF LIARS?
At the time of his death, Arafat’s assets were estimated at $200 million by the Forbes magazine. Forbes listed him ninth in its ranking of the world’s wealthiest heads of state, even though he was a ruler without a country and many of his people were (are) suffering from abject poverty. Other sources, including the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), put Arafat’s fortune at $6 billion dollars, a figure exaggerated according to several PLO figures I have talked to.
Suha Tawil, 30 years younger than Arafat, married the PLO leader in 1992 in Tunisia where she worked for the PLO headquarters in Tunis. Suha returned with Arafat to Gaza where the couple lived alternately in Gaza and Ramallah. However, in 2001, she took their child, Zahwa, to Paris, where they continued to live until the late 2005, when they moved to Tunis.
Suha lived a lavish and luxurious life in the French capital where it was rumored that the money she spent per month would cover the basic needs of five thousand Palestinian refugees in a place like Jabalya in the Gaza Strip.
In 2004, the French authorities began investigating the transfer of $11.5 million from Swiss bank accounts to accounts in France controlled by Suha Arafat.
Then Suha reportedly lambasted the French authorities for ordering the investigation.
“What is so strange for the Palestinian president to send any amount of money to his family and his wife, who is protecting the Palestinian interests abroad, and the money came and will come legally,” Suha was quoted as saying during an interview with the London-based Saudi-financed al Hayat Arabic newspaper.
Following Arafat’s death in November 2004, and wishing to settle “the problem” with Suha quietly, Palestinian Authority leaders, e.g. Fatah leaders, reportedly struck a deal with Suha whereby she agreed to receive a large amount of Arafat’s fortune as well as a monthly stipend of tens of thousands of dollars for the rest of her life, all in return for shutting her mouth.
While the exact details of Suha’s present fortune are still not known, it is very likely that the bulk of her assets have been arrogated from monies that belonged to the Palestinian people. Suha was not known as a businesswoman and she didn’t hail from a particularly rich family. Her mother, Rimonda Tawil published a weekly magazine in East Jerusalem, called al Awda, which was financed by the PLO. And she inherited very few assets from her father.
So, how did she amass all this wealth, all these hundreds of millions of dollars?
In simple English, it seems we are talking about a huge theft by every conceivable standard of logic. I know that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty. However, it this case, the guilt screams to the seventh haven. People don’t just make hundreds of millions that easily and in such a short period of time.
Besides Yasser Arafat’s bank accounts, secret or otherwise, didn’t belong to him personally but to the Palestinian people.
More to the point, the late Palestinian leader, with all due respect to his struggle for freedom and statehood, had no right to leave hundreds of millions or tens of millions of dollars to his wife and daughter. These millions were not his. They belonged to the people.
Hence, it is imperative that the Palestinian society raise the issue and exert meaningful pressure on government officials so that they immediately order a full and comprehensive investigation into Suha Arafat’s finances.
The people of Palestine have every right to know where every cent of Suha’s millions came from, and if a genuine investigation is carried out and incriminating evidence is obtained, then the PA will have to seek her extradition so that she will stand trial for corruption and embezzlement of the Palestinian people’s money.
This is test case not only for the Palestinian resolve to fight corruption, but also for the seriousness of our quest for independence and statehood.
THE CON-MAN ARAFAT GREATEST OF LIARS?
At the time of his death, Arafat’s assets were estimated at $200 million by the Forbes magazine. Forbes listed him ninth in its ranking of the world’s wealthiest heads of state, even though he was a ruler without a country and many of his people were (are) suffering from abject poverty. Other sources, including the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), put Arafat’s fortune at $6 billion dollars, a figure exaggerated according to several PLO figures I have talked to.
Suha Tawil, 30 years younger than Arafat, married the PLO leader in 1992 in Tunisia where she worked for the PLO headquarters in Tunis. Suha returned with Arafat to Gaza where the couple lived alternately in Gaza and Ramallah. However, in 2001, she took their child, Zahwa, to Paris, where they continued to live until the late 2005, when they moved to Tunis.
Suha lived a lavish and luxurious life in the French capital where it was rumored that the money she spent per month would cover the basic needs of five thousand Palestinian refugees in a place like Jabalya in the Gaza Strip.
In 2004, the French authorities began investigating the transfer of $11.5 million from Swiss bank accounts to accounts in France controlled by Suha Arafat.
Then Suha reportedly lambasted the French authorities for ordering the investigation.
“What is so strange for the Palestinian president to send any amount of money to his family and his wife, who is protecting the Palestinian interests abroad, and the money came and will come legally,” Suha was quoted as saying during an interview with the London-based Saudi-financed al Hayat Arabic newspaper.
Following Arafat’s death in November 2004, and wishing to settle “the problem” with Suha quietly, Palestinian Authority leaders, e.g. Fatah leaders, reportedly struck a deal with Suha whereby she agreed to receive a large amount of Arafat’s fortune as well as a monthly stipend of tens of thousands of dollars for the rest of her life, all in return for shutting her mouth.
While the exact details of Suha’s present fortune are still not known, it is very likely that the bulk of her assets have been arrogated from monies that belonged to the Palestinian people. Suha was not known as a businesswoman and she didn’t hail from a particularly rich family. Her mother, Rimonda Tawil published a weekly magazine in East Jerusalem, called al Awda, which was financed by the PLO. And she inherited very few assets from her father.
So, how did she amass all this wealth, all these hundreds of millions of dollars?
In simple English, it seems we are talking about a huge theft by every conceivable standard of logic. I know that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty. However, it this case, the guilt screams to the seventh haven. People don’t just make hundreds of millions that easily and in such a short period of time.
Besides Yasser Arafat’s bank accounts, secret or otherwise, didn’t belong to him personally but to the Palestinian people.
More to the point, the late Palestinian leader, with all due respect to his struggle for freedom and statehood, had no right to leave hundreds of millions or tens of millions of dollars to his wife and daughter. These millions were not his. They belonged to the people.
Hence, it is imperative that the Palestinian society raise the issue and exert meaningful pressure on government officials so that they immediately order a full and comprehensive investigation into Suha Arafat’s finances.
The people of Palestine have every right to know where every cent of Suha’s millions came from, and if a genuine investigation is carried out and incriminating evidence is obtained, then the PA will have to seek her extradition so that she will stand trial for corruption and embezzlement of the Palestinian people’s money.
This is test case not only for the Palestinian resolve to fight corruption, but also for the seriousness of our quest for independence and statehood.
