Suha Arafat
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Suha Daoud Arafat (Arabic: سهى داود عرفات), née Suha Daoud Tawil (سهى داود الطويل) (born 1963), is the widow of the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
When speculation arose about the imminent death of her husband in November 2004, Suha's role in Arafat's life, her place in his financial succession plans and her absence from Palestine attracted criticism from some within the Palestinian Authority. Mrs. Arafat left Palestine at the beginning of the second Intifada with agreement with her husband who didn't want her and his daughter to become hostage and a target of the Israelis thus being used against him.
In 2005, Nigerian criminal gangs used her name in some of their advance fee fraud scams propagated throughout the world by email [1].
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[edit] Early life
Suha was born in Jerusalem in 1963 into an affluent Christian family who lived in Nablus then later Ramallah. Her father[2] was Daoud Tawil, the Oxford-educated heir to a banking fortune, who was from Jaffa while her mother, Raymonda Hawa Tawil, born in Akka (Acre) was a politically active Palestinian nationalist poet and writer, founded the Palestine Press Service in Jerusalem as well as the Al-Awdah Magazine in Jerusalem and "The Return" Magazine in Washington DC. Mrs Tawil was frequently placed under house arrest by the Israeli police and was put in Jail and tortured in a solitary confinement in 1978[citation needed].
Suha attended the convent Rosary Sisters' School in Beit Hanina, Jerusalem and later the Sorbonne in Paris. Suha met Arafat during his first visit to France in 1989. She was responsible during his visit to do the immediate translations and interpreter at of the meetings with all the visitors and French government officials. Suha then was working as a freelance journalist, based in Paris Soon after his departure from Paris, Arafat asked Suha to come and work with him in Tunisia. Suha was hired by Arafat to do public relations for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). She subsequently became his Economics Adviser.
Raymonda, her mother was very close to the late Abu Jihad (who was assassinated by Israel in Tunis[citation needed]) and to Arafat. Raymonda took her whole family to meet Arafat for the first time in Amman, Jordan in 1983. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35240-2004Nov8.html].
[edit] Marriage to Arafat
She was married to Arafat in 1990, when she was aged 27 (and he was 61), in a secret ceremony [citation needed]in the then PLO headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia. She converted to Islam before their wedding. The marriage, which was kept secret for two years, came as a surprise to many Palestinians. For years, Arafat had always jokingly said that the reason he was single was because he was "married to the Palestinian cause."
Suha has been criticized by the Palestinian public for not staying with her husband when confined to his headquarters in Ramallah by the Israelis in 2002. According to Arafat's close advisers, it was in agreement with her husband and at his demand that Suha left to France and then to live in Tunisia[citation needed]. Some reports said that they led almost separate lives since his return to the West Bank, each with separate quarters in their home. According to Arafat's body guards, Suha and Abu Ammar (as he is known), shared a little house with three bedrooms[citation needed]. Arafat had his office downstairs with all the bodyguards while Suha and their daughter Zahwa had their little space on the second floor. The same sources say that there was nothing luxurious in the house or in the way they have lived. Some reports say her apartment is decorated with images of the Pope, Jesus, the Holy Qur’an as well as one of a young Arafat.
Pilgrimage to Makkah Yasser Arafat was a religious person but very tolerant to other religions. His marriage to Suha, a Christian, was a symbol for unity between Palestinian Muslims and Christians. Suha embraced Islam and performed Al-Omra while her husband was under siege. According to Al-Quds London based newspaper (www.Alquds.co.uk) and Al-Hayat (www.alhayat.com) less than two month after Arafat's death, Suha went with her then nine year old daughter Zahwa and performed Al-Hajj (http://hajj.al-islam.com) which is the Islamic pilgrimage to Makkah Al-Mukarramah, the holiest places for Muslims (http://www.saudinf.com/main/a83.htm)
[edit] Controversial lifestyle
After the Oslo Accords and the consequent return of the Palestinian leadership from exile in 1994, Suha moved with her husband to Gaza City, where she established and led her own aid organization, and engaged in political efforts to improve the status of women in Palestinian society. In 1995 she gave birth to Zahwa in Paris, named after Arafat's mother, who died when he was three years old.
Suha's decision to stay at a French hospital to give birth to her child angered many Palestinians living in difficult conditions in the Gaza Strip, especially after she was quoted as saying that sanitary conditions in Palestinian hospitals were "disastrous."
Few people know the real reasons behind Suha's birth in Paris. Suha's father and mother at the time lived in Paris after her mother was allegedly threatened by the Israelis and a bomb was placed under her car in Ramallah. Suha's parents took refuge in France. In 1995, Suha came to visit her father who was very ill and was on his death bed. Her father passed away in Paris while Suha was 9 month pregnant, unable (according to her physician) to take a plane back home. A few days later Suha gave birth to Zahwa[citation needed].
Suha was a very nationalist person. A a student, she was a leader in the GUPS (General Union For Palestine Student) in France where she organized demonstrations and stands for Palestine. Suha had lived all her life under occupation and had suffered from it seeing her mother put in jail and her colleagues at demonstrations imprisoned and killed. She did win support for refusing, on principle, to accept a VIP pass from the Israelis that would have allowed her to cross Israeli roadblocks without the hassle that most Palestinians face[citation needed].
Some criticize her for not being in touch with the average Palestinian. Some Palestinians did not like the idea of Arafat marrying a young Christian woman, (despite the fact the she converted to Islam.) Gaza was and still is a very hard place to live. It is also far different than the modern Ramallah people's mentality. Suha also was not veiled and refused to become veiled despite the pressure from many close aids and women associations in Gaza[citation needed].
[edit] Financial dealings
Suha came from an affluent Palestinian family, which had both money and fame, and had a rich husband who, in addition to his control of the PLO money, had his own private wealth. They were many reports that said the Palestinian Authority is paying Suha $50,000 a month on her husband's behalf out of the PA budget. Although Suha did not deny receiving the money, she has accused Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon of publicising the story and just said "what is wrong if a husband is sending money to his wife"?.
French prosecutors announced in 2003 that they had begun an inquiry into the transfer of $9 million into Suha's French bank accounts. The Paris public prosecutor confirmed a report in the magazine Le Canard enchaîné (which is a satirical newspaper) that the inquiry had been launched after information provided by the Bank of France and a government anti-money-laundering body. Asked about the huge sums of money, an angry Suha asked: "What's wrong if my husband sends me some money? I'm working here (in Paris) for the benefit of my people." She, in turn, has accused her husband's close aides of being responsible for corrupt dealings, saying: "Every beautiful flower ends up surrounded by weeds."
The investigations have cleared Mrs Arafat of any responsibility of any mal-doing[citation needed].
[edit] Political opinions
She told a London-based Saudi newspaper there would have been "no greater honour" than sacrificing any son of hers to the struggle. "I hate the Israelis, I oppose normalisation with them ... [they] are responsible for the problems our children have." She also dismissed the Yasser Arafat International Airport, which operated at the time under Israeli security as "a branch of Ben Gurion in Gaza," referring to the airport outside Tel Aviv. She ridiculed the now closed Palestinian-run casino in Jericho as "a disgrace."
Referring to the now-destroyed casino, "I hate it. It's the most shameful act that the economic counselors of the Palestinian Authority did. Right across from a refugee camp, no less. We have no hospitals, no sewage, sick children, a whole sick society. But, oh, we have gambling. Great."
Suha embarrassed the former United States president's wife Senator Hillary Clinton at a West Bank function by launching a tirade against Israel claiming that Israeli actions increased cancer rates in the Palestinian areas. A senior Palestinian official was forced to apologize to Washington. Hillary Clinton, forced to remain on the dais during the tirade, afterwards denounced the remarks. Suha was always attacked for her political views who sometimes where far more radical than her husband’s. She was also attacked by her husband’s advisers because she knew the plots they were doing.
[edit] Husband's illness and aftermath, struggle for millions in Arafat estate
With her husband ailing, a distressed Suha charged that "they are trying to bury him alive", referring to members of Arafat's own administration. Top Palestinian leaders such as Nabil Shaath, Ahmed Qureia and Mahmud Abbas deferred a trip to Paris until they received word they would be welcome. She later appeared to have reconciled with them, embracing Qureia upon his visit to her husband's bedside.
Suha was actively involved in planning her husband's funeral ceremonies. Suha and her daughter attended a memorial service in Cairo but were advised by Palestinian authorities not to attend the funeral service in Ramallah on security grounds. These concerns were proven not unfounded when mourners fired machine guns in the air, leading to nine casualties, one critical. Chaotic scenes marked the proceedings as a combination of grief.
Suha Arafat and her daughter Zahwa have been living in Tunisia for the last 4 years.
[edit] Nigerian scammers use Suha Arafat's name
In 2005, Nigerian criminal gangs used her name in some of their advance fee fraud scams propagated throughout the world by email [3]. Some of the emails used referred to this article. Emails sent out as part of the criminal plot, which was in no way associated with Suha Arafat, falsely purported to be from her, asking for help to recover $20,000,000, and promising the recipient a share of the money for his help. This was simply a false promise intended to prepare the victim to hand over his own money in the vain hope of seeing a share of the fictitious fortune. Advanced Fee Fraud scammers are continuing to use this modality even today, 6th December 2006.
