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.

Contents 1 Early life 1.1 Marriage to Arafat 2 Controversial lifestyle 3 Financial dealings 4 Political opinions 5 Arafts's illness and funeral 6 Nigerian scammers use Suha Arafat's name 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Early life

Suha was born in Israel in 1963 into an affluent Christian family who lived in Nablus then later Ramallah (both cities being then under Jordanian occupation). Suha's father [2] was Daoud Tawil, an Oxford-educated heir to a banking fortune was born in Jaffa. Suha's mother, Raymonda Hawa Tawil, born in Acre, was a politically active Palestinian militant, poet and writer, she founded the Palestine Press Service in Jerusalem as well as the Al-Awdah Magazine in Israel and "The Return" Magazine in Washington DC. Mrs Tawil was frequently placed under house arrest by the Israeli police and was jailed in 1978^{[citation needed]}.

Suha attended a convent school, Rosary Sisters' School, in Beit Hanina, Israel and later the Sorbonne in Paris. As a student, Suha was a leader in the GUPS (General Union For Palestine Student) in France where she organized demonstrations for Palestine. Suha met Arafat during his first visit to France in 1989. She was responsible during his visit for translations and acted as interpreter at the meetings with all the visitors and French government officials. Suha was then 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.

Suha's mother, Raymonda, was very close to the late Abu Jihad (who was assassinated by Israel in Tunis^[1]) and to Arafat. Raymonda took her whole family to meet Arafat for the first time in Amman, Jordan in 1983. [3].

[edit] Marriage to Arafat

Suha married Arafat in 1990, when she was aged 27 and he was 61. The marriage was conducted in a secret ceremony in the then PLO headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia. Suha 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 jokingly said that the reason he was single was because he was married to the Palestinian cause. As a young man Arafat did not have much luck with women and there is no evidence of him having a relationship with a woman in his youth.

In 1995 Suha gave birth to Zahwa in Paris, named after Arafat's mother, who died when he was three years old.

Some reports said that they had 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 Arafat, shared a little house with three bedrooms^{[citation needed]}, Arafat was mostly downstairs in his office with his 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.

Yasser Arafat was tolerant to other religions. His marriage to Suha, a Christian, was a symbol for unity between Palestinian Muslims and Christians. Suha embraced Islam and made the pilgrimage to Mecca (Umrah) while her husband was under siege. According to the 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 to Mecca for the Hajj.

[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. But 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."

The reasons behind Suha's birth in Paris are not known. 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. 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 did not return to Gaza preferring to stay in Paris and take no part in Palestinian politics. Suha did not stay with her husband he when confined to his headquarters in Ramallah by the Israel in 2002. Suha was criticized by the Palestinian public for this supposedly unpatriotic action. According to Arafat's close advisers, Arafat and Suha agreed, at Arafat's request that Suha leave for France and then afterwards to Tunisia^{[citation needed]}.

Suha Arafat was a controversial figure among Palestinians, and in many ways symbolized the internal conflicts that continue to exist in Palestinian society. The criticism levied against Yasser Arafat for marrying a Christian woman mirrored the religious tensions that often exist among the Palestinians. Geographical differences also played a role: Palestinians from Ramallah are often looked at with suspicion or disdain from their counterparts in other cities - especially in the Gaza Strip - due to the historically disproportionate concentration of wealth in that city that persists to this day, as well as the more liberal and Western values its inhabitants tend to espouse.

Some criticize Suha for flaunting her wealth in Paris while the vast majority of Palestinians live in abject poverty. During her husband's presidency she was notorious for speeding around Ramallah in her BMW convertible, and never wore any type of head covering in public something anathema to most Palestinian Muslims.

[edit] Financial dealings

Suha came from an affluent Palestinian family, which had both money and fame, and had a rich husband who amassed an enormous fortune. The are reports that the Palestinian Authority agreed to pay Suha $100,000 a month out of the PA budget. Suha has not denied receiving the money. Because almost all of the assets of the PA and the PLO were controlled by Arafat and actually held in his name personally it is thought that the PA's concession to Suha (the large monthly payment) was in return for her agreement not to demand a share of Arafat's wealth as an inheritance for her and her daughter.

French prosecutors announced in 2003 that they had begun an inquiry into the transfer of $9 billion into Suha's French bank accounts. The Paris public prosecutor confirmed a report in the magazine Le Canard enchaîné (a satirical newspaper) that the inquiry had been launched after information provided by the Bank of France and a government anti-money-laundering body. The investigations have not cleared Suha of any wrong-doing^{[citation needed]}. Asked about the huge sums of money, an angry Suha replied: "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."

[edit] Political opinions

Suha 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 and noted that there was no basis whatsoever for the claims. Hillary Clinton, forced to remain on the dais during the tirade, feebly denounced the remarks later.

Suha has been attacked for her political views often more radical than her husband’s. She was also attacked by her husband’s advisers presumably out of fear that she would expose the wrong-doings she was privy to. Above all her refusal to live in the Palestinian territories has made her very unpopular amongst Palestinians.

[edit] Arafts's illness and funeral

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. Only after securing an agreement to receive continued funding from the Palestinian Authority did Suha allow Qureia access 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. Recently Tunisian newspapers reported that both received Tunisian nationality.

[edit] Nigerian scammers use Suha Arafat's name

In 2005, Nigerian criminal gangs used Suha name in some of their advance fee fraud scams propagated throughout the world by bulk email. Some of the emails used referred to this article [4]. The emails falsely purported to be from Suha and asked for help to recover vast sums of money promising the recipient a share of the money for his or her help. There are no grounds whatsoever for the scammer's claims.

[edit] References

1. ^ Barak Associated Press by Gwen Ackerman. 4 July, 1997 - Assassination of Abu Jihad [1]

[edit] External links

• 60 Minutes Story
• Why was Euro 1 million a month sent to Arafat's wife
• Bristol Hotel Paris
• BBC Profile of Suha Arafat
• Israeli Criticisms of Suha Arafat
• Arafat Finances
• Washington Post Speculation about Arafat's death and Suha's role