Lawyers representing senior figures in the Palestinian Authority - including Yasser Arafat - have demanded that Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s most popular daily, retract charges that tens of millions of dollars have been transferred overseas, in case of a long-term occupation of the Palestinian territories by the Israeli army.
East Jerusalem attorney Osama Sa'adi sent a letter to lawyers at the newspaper, demanding it print a retraction of allegations that Arafat and Mahmud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, siphoned off funds to finance the activities of the Palestinian leadership in the event of it being forced into exile. The Israeli newspaper said the allegations were part of an official Israeli document, handed over to the U.S. administration as part of the ongoing effort to discredit Arafat.
One document, also quoted by Yedioth Ahronoth, accused Arafat of having transferred 5.1 million dollars into the Paris bank account of his wife Suha. The document also referred to a transfer of 70 million dollars by Abu Mazen, without saying where the money had been sent.
"It's indecent," Arafat reacted angrily in a statement to the Qatar-based satellite television Al-Jazeera. "Imagine to what depths they have sunk," he added. Arafat said such accusations were "part of a military, media and political campaign, aided by the silence" both in the region and internationally over the Israeli offensive in the Palestinian territories.
Israeli Knesset member and former Arafat aide, Ahmed Tibi, said the allegations were "planted" by the Prime Minister's Bureau, as part of an Israeli attempt at diverting the attention of the diplomatic "quartet" of the U.S., Russia, European Union and United Nations, which meets Tuesday to discuss reviving the peace process.
"This information is part of the lies and rumors that are being put around by the Israelis before the quartet meeting," he told Army Radio. "It is a part of the war that Israel has declared against the Palestinian people and the Palestinian leadership," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
