Editing Yasser Arafat (section)

==Financial dealings==
Under the Oslo Peace Accords, Israel undertook to deposit the VAT tax receipts on goods purchased by Palestinians into the Palestinian treasury. Until 2000, these monies were transferred directly to Arafat's personal accounts at [[Bank Leumi]], in Tel Aviv.
<ref name="billions">{{Cite web
| first=Tricia |last=McDermott
 | title= Arafat's Billions: One Man's Quest To Track Down Unaccounted-For Public Funds
| date=7 November 2003
|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arafats-billions/|access-date=12 February 2023|website=cbsnews.com}}</ref>

In August 2002, the [[Military Intelligence Directorate (Israel)|Israeli Military Intelligence]] Chief alleged that Arafat's personal wealth was in the range of US$1.3 billion.<ref name="Alon">{{cite news|first1=Gideon|last1=Alon|first2=Amira |last2=Hass |title=MI chief: terror groups trying hard to pull off mega-attack|url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=197188&contrassID=1&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=0|work=Haaretz|date=14 August 2002|access-date=21 July 2007|archive-date=1 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001004133/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=197188&contrassID=1&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=0|url-status=dead|author2-link=Amira Hass}}</ref> In 2003 the [[International Monetary Fund]] (IMF) conducted an audit of the PNA and stated that Arafat had diverted $900 million in public funds to a special bank account controlled by himself and the PNA Chief Economic Financial adviser. However, the IMF did not claim that there were any improprieties, and it specifically stated that most of the funds had been used to invest in Palestinian assets, both internally and abroad.<ref>{{cite news |title=Arafat Diverted $900 Million to Private Account, IMF Says |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=arNczoMikRug |publisher=Bloomberg News |date=20 September 2003 |access-date=8 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402172134/http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=arNczoMikRug |archive-date=2 April 2015}}</ref><ref>For a general overview of the crucial importance of foreign funding in the peace process, and the PNA's use of such aid, see Rex Brynen, ''A Very Political Economy: Peacebuilding and Foreign Aid in the West Bank and Gaza,'' United States Institute of Peace Press, 2000</ref>

However, in 2003, a team of American accountants—hired by Arafat's own [[Finance minister|finance ministry]]—began examining Arafat's finances. In its conclusions, the team claimed that part of the Palestinian leader's wealth was in a secret portfolio worth close to $1 billion, with investments in companies like a [[Coca-Cola]] bottling plant in [[Ramallah]], a Tunisian cell phone company and [[Venture capital|venture capital funds]] in the U.S. and the [[Cayman Islands]]. The head of the investigation stated that "although the money for the portfolio came from public funds like Palestinian taxes, virtually none of it was used for the Palestinian people; it was all controlled by Arafat. And none of these dealings were made public."<ref name="billions"/> An investigation conducted by the [[General Accounting Office]] reported that Arafat and the PLO held over $10 billion in assets even at the time when he was publicly claiming bankruptcy.<ref>{{cite web |title=Backgrounder: Corruption in the PLO's Financial Empire |url=http://www.cdn-friends-icej.co/medigest/jul98/backgrnd.html}}{{dead link |date=June 2024 |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>

Although Arafat lived a modest lifestyle, [[Dennis Ross]], former Middle East negotiator for Presidents [[George H. W. Bush|George H.W. Bush]] and Bill Clinton, stated that Arafat's "walking-around money" financed a vast patronage system known as [[neopatrimonialism]]. According to [[Salam Fayyad]]—a former [[World Bank]] official whom Arafat appointed [[Finance Minister of the Palestinian National Authority|Finance Minister of the PNA]] in 2002—Arafat's commodity monopolies could accurately be seen as gouging his own people, "especially in Gaza which is poorer, which is something that is totally unacceptable and immoral." Fayyad claims that Arafat used $20 million from public funds to pay the leadership of the PNA security forces (the [[Preventive Security Service]]) alone.<ref name="billions"/>

Fuad Shubaki, former financial aide to Arafat, told the Israeli security service [[Shin Bet]] that Arafat used several million dollars of aid money to buy weapons and support militant groups.<ref>{{cite news|first=Yaakov|last=Katz|title='Arafat used aid to buy weapons|url=http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961361493&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull|work=The Jerusalem Post|date=17 May 2006|access-date=21 July 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007112504/http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961361493&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull|archive-date=7 October 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> During Israel's [[Operation Defensive Shield]], the Israel army recovered counterfeit money and documents from Arafat's Ramallah headquarters. The documents showed that, in 2001, Arafat personally approved payments to [[Tanzim]] militants.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2002/4/Documents%20seized%20during%20Operation%20Defensive%20Shield |title=Documents seized during Operation Defensive Shield linking Arafat to Terrorism |date=15 April 2002 |publisher=Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040808183754/http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFAArchive/2000_2009/2002/4/Documents%20seized%20during%20Operation%20Defensive%20Shield |archive-date=8 August 2004 |access-date=13 July 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Palestinians claimed that the counterfeit money was confiscated from criminal elements.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-a-2002-04-03-27-israel-67566887/287571.html|title=Israel Claims Finding Evidence Against Arafat – 2002-04-03|website=VOA|date=30 October 2009 |access-date=17 June 2024}}</ref>