Suha Arafat
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Suha Daoud Arafat (Arabic: سهى داود عرفات), née Suha Daoud Tawil (سهى داود الطويل) (born 17 July 1963), is the widow of the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
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[edit] Early life
Suha was born in the West Bank in 1963 into an affluent Christian family who lived in Nablus, then Ramallah (both cities being then under Jordanian authority). Suha's father Daoud Tawil, an Oxford-educated[1] heir to a banking fortune, was born in Tel-Aviv. 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 General Union For Palestine Students (GUPS) 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 where the Palestinian Liberation Organization had set up a haven. 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[2]) 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. 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.
Their only child, daughter Zahwa Arafat was born on July 24, 1995 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. 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 that they lived.
His marriage to Suha, a Christian, was a symbol for unity between Palestinian Muslims and Christians. Suha embraced Islam[citation needed] and made the pilgrimage to Mecca (Umrah) while her husband was under siege. According to the Al-Quds London-based newspaper and Al-Hayat, less than two months after Arafat's death, Suha then went with her nine year old daughter, Zahwa, to Mecca to perform Hajj.[citation needed]
[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. There are reports that the Palestinian Authority pays Suha $10,000 a month out of PNA's budget. Suha told the Sunday Times that the sum is her late husband's pension [4]. 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 million 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[specify] 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."
In November 1999, at a function inaugurating a new American-funded health initiative in the West Bank, Suha launched into a tirade against Israel, making unsubstantiated claims that the Israeli government was responsible for cancer rates in Palestinian areas. Then-U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (now a Senator from New York) was present at the ceremony and was sitting feet away from Arafat on the dais when the remarks were made. Unsure of how to handle the Palestinian First Lady's unexpected outburst, Clinton accepted a hug from Suha and kissed her on the cheek. A senior Palestinian official later apologized to Washington for the embarrassment caused to Mrs. Clinton and noted that Suha's claims could not be verified. Clinton herself later explained that she was not fully aware of the nature of Mrs. Arafat's speech - which was delivered in Arabic - and said the English translation was difficult to follow.
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] Arafat'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 moved to Tunisia in 2004, and gained local citizenship; however, in 2007, Tunisia's official register published a notification that Suha had lost Tunisian citizenship. No explanation was given.[5] With the loss of her citizenship, Suha departed for Malta. The decree made no reference to Zahwa; an Al Jazeera report speculated that the revocation of citizenship was due to a dispute between Suha and her business partners.[6] Maltese newspapers wrote that upon her arrival in Malta, Suha had stayed in the Libyan embassy before moving into a new US$1.5 million Valletta home, and received the protection of a Libyan security detail, all paid for personally by Muammar al-Gaddafi; Suha herself denied the claim and attacked the assumption that anything would be wrong with this if it were true, noting that al-Gaddafi was a friend of her husband's.[7][8]
[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.[9] 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
- ^ "Stifling of Suha", Telegraph / The Age, November 14, 2004
- ^ "Assassination of Abu Jihad", Barak Associated Press by Gwen Ackerman. 4 July 1997
- ^ "Fight Over Icon Has Plenty of Precedent", Washington Post Foreign Service, November 9, 2004
- ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2848225.ece "Arafat’s widow: I live on just £5,000 a month"
- ^ "Tunisia: Arafat's Widow Loses Citizenship", The New York Times, 2007-08-15. Retrieved on 2007-11-03.
- ^ "Tunis cancels Suha Arafat passport", Al Jazeera, 2007-08-14. Retrieved on 2007-11-03.
- ^ "Gadhafi sponsors Arafat's family in Malta", Malta Media, 2007-10-18. Retrieved on 2007-11-03.
- ^ "Suha Arafat denies home paid for by Gaddafi", The Gulf Times, 2007-10-21. Retrieved on 2007-11-03.
- ^ "Another Nigerian letter scam launched", Television New Zealand, December 6, 2004
