Suha Arafat: I wish I’d never married himPalestinian leader’s widow denies she has millions in the bank, claims to have turned down dozens of suitors

Nine years after the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, his widow said she regrets the marriage and given the choice again, would not have wed him.

“The marriage to Arafat was a big mistake and I regret it,” said Suha Arafat in an interview published last week in the Turkish-language Sabah newspaper. “We were married for 22 years and it felt like 50.”

Arafat added that she had repeatedly tried to leave her husband but was denied her freedom.

“I tried to divorce Arafat more than 100 times and he didn’t let me,” she said. “Everyone knows about this story, especially those who were in his inner circle.”

According to the report, the two first met in 1986 when she was a student in Paris and engaged to a local lawyer. At the time, Suha recalled, the Palestinian leader, 33 years her senior, was a much sought after man.

“There were many women who wanted to marry him but he only wanted me, despite the objections of my family,” she said.

Suha said that although her relatives, a well-established Ramallah family, were opposed to the union, the pair married in secret on her birthday four years later. Her mother was furious at the development and flew to Tunis where she angrily berated Arafat for entering into a marriage with her daughter, which she deemed inappropriate.

“Fate chose me and it wasn’t easy right from the start,” she said.

As soon as she became Mrs. Arafat she was locked away behind walls for security reasons, Suha said.

“I had to be careful in my phone conversations because of bugging, and we were always moving from one location to another.”

Suha recalled that after her husband initiated the first intifada in 1987 — it actually began as a spontaneous uprising — the world’s media attention was focused on him, “and it is no secret that it [the media] is controlled by Jews” she noted.

As the wife of man who spent so much time in the international media spotlight, Suha said she felt like the weakest link in the chain.

“My identity was completely destroyed,” she said.

Suha Arafat. (photo credit: Sharon Perry/Flash90)

Since Arafat’s death in a Paris hospital in 2004 — she has claimed that he was poisoned — Suha said she has had dozens of marriage proposals, but rejected all hopeful suitors with the same answer: “Arafat was my hero.”

Suha lives on a stipend she gets from the Palestinian Authority, which she said is barely sufficient to support her and her daughter, and is a far distance fromreports on millions of dollars that went to her through secret bank accounts.

“All the stories about Arafat putting millions in my bank account are nonsense and lies,” she said. The money is with those who were close to Arafat and anyone who is determined can find it.”

She also denied a rumor that the apartment she now shares with her teenager daughter Zawa in Malta was purchased as a gift by the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The apartment, she said, is rented.

“Even if I have regrets I accept the reality. Arafat was a great leader and I was very lonely in my marriage. I was always on the defensive because of the rumors that they spread about me. But life without him is even harder.”

“If I could turn back time I wouldn’t marry Arafat,” she added.

Arafat was a strong supporter of the decision to exhume her husband in November 2012 amid claims he was poisoned.

Suha Arafat: I wish I’d never married himPalestinian leader’s wife denies she has millions in the bank, claims to have turned down dozens of suitors

Nine years after the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, his widow said she regrets the marriage and given the choice again, would not have wed him.

“The marriage to Arafat was a big mistake and I regret it,” said Suha Arafat in an interview published last week in the Turkish-language Sabah newspaper. “We were married for 22 years and it felt like 50.”

Arafat added that she had repeatedly tried to leave her husband but was denied her freedom.

“I tried to divorce Arafat more than 100 times and he didn’t let me,” she said. “Everyone knows about this story, especially those who were in his inner circle.”

According to the report, the two first met in 1986 when she was a student in Paris and engaged to a local lawyer. At the time, Suha recalled, the Palestinian leader, 33 years her senior, was a much sought after man.

“There were many women who wanted to marry him but he only wanted me, despite the objections of my family,” she said.

Suha said that although her relatives, a well-established Ramallah family, were opposed to the union, the pair married in secret on her birthday four years later. Her mother was furious at the development and flew to Tunis where she angrily berated Arafat for entering into a marriage with her daughter, which she deemed inappropriate.

“Fate chose me and it wasn’t easy right from the start,” she said.

As soon as she became Mrs. Arafat she was locked away behind walls for security reasons, Suha said.

“I had to be careful in my phone conversations because of bugging, and we were always moving from one location to another.”

Suha recalled that after her husband initiated the first intifada in 1987 — it actually began as a spontaneous uprising — the world’s media attention was focused on him, “and it is no secret that it [the media] is controlled by Jews” she noted.

As the wife of man who spent so much time in the international media spotlight, Suha said she felt like the weakest link in the chain.

“My identity was completely destroyed,” she said.

Suha Arafat. (photo credit: Sharon Perry/Flash90)

Since Arafat’s death in a Paris hospital in 2004 — she has claimed that he was poisoned — Suha said she has had dozens of marriage proposals, but rejected all hopeful suitors with the same answer: “Arafat was my hero.”

Suha lives on a stipend she gets from the Palestinian Authority, which she said is barely sufficient to support her and her daughter, and is a far distance fromreports on millions of dollars that went to her through secret bank accounts.

“All the stories about Arafat putting millions in my bank account are nonsense and lies,” she said. The money is with those who were close to Arafat and anyone who is determined can find it.”

She also denied a rumor that the apartment she now shares with her teenager daughter Zawa in Malta was purchased as a gift by the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The apartment, she said, is rented.

“Even if I have regrets I accept the reality. Arafat was a great leader and I was very lonely in my marriage. I was always on the defensive because of the rumors that they spread about me. But life without him is even harder.”

“If I could turn back time I wouldn’t marry Arafat,” she added.

Arafat was a strong supporter of the decision to exhume her husband in November 2012 amid claims he was poisoned.

Malta - 'Suha Arafat Admits Husband Premeditated Intifada'

Malta - Yasser Arafat’s widow Suha admitted that the late Palestinian leader premeditated the Second Intifada, in an interview with Dubai TV earlier this month, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

“Immediately after the failure of the Camp David [negotiations], I met him in Paris upon his return.… Camp David had failed, and he said to me: ‘You should remain in Paris.’ I asked him why, and he said: ‘Because I am going to start an Intifada. They want me to betray the Palestinian cause. They want me to give up on our principles, and I will not do so,’” the research institute translated Suha as saying.

“’I do not want Zahwah’s (Arafat’s daughter’s) friends in the future to say that Yasser Arafat abandoned the Palestinian cause and principles. I might be martyred, but I shall bequeath our historical heritage to Zahwa and to the children of Palestine,’” Suha quote her late husband as saying, according to the translation.

Arafat’s comments run contrary to claims that former prime minister Ariel Sharon’s infamous visit to the Temple Mount triggered the Intifada, which was launched in September 2000.

Yasser Arafat died in a Paris military hospital in 2004, and earlier this year, Suha requested an autopsy to search for traces of a poisonous substance.

She told Al Jazeera in July that a Swiss laboratory had detected high levels of the radioactive isotope polonium in Arafat’s clothes, which have been in storage since his death in 2004. Palestinians have accused Israel of causing Arafat’s death, though no conclusive evidence has been presented publicly. Israel denies killing him.

Arafat, who founded the Palestine Liberation Organization, died in a French hospital at the age of 75. Doctors at the Percy military hospital in Clamart, France, said he suffered from a brain hemorrhage and fell into a coma before he died. He is buried below a glass tomb adjacent to the offices of his successor, Mahmoud Abbas.

Last month, forensic experts took samples from Arafat’s buried corpse in the West Bank on Tuesday, trying to determine if he was murdered using the hard-to-trace radioactive poison, Polonium. They said the process would take several months.

Suha again says the intifada was pre-planned by Arafat

Following are excerpts from an interview with Suha Arafat, widow of Yasser Arafat, which aired on Dubai TV on December 16, 2012:

Suha Arafat: Yasser Arafat had made a decision to launch the Intifada. Immediately after the failure of the Camp David [negotiations], I met him in Paris upon his return, in July 2001 [sic]. Camp David has failed, and he said to me: “You should remain in Paris.” I asked him why, and he said: “Because I am going to start an Intifada. They want me to betray the Palestinian cause. They want me to give up on our principles, and I will not do so. I do not want Zahwa’s friends in the future to say that Yasser Arafat abandoned the Palestinian cause and principles. I might be martyred, but I shall bequeath our historical heritage to Zahwa and to the children of Palestine.”

She has said this before:



As have prominent PLO officials:



Palestinian Media Watch has an entire list of such statements. 

There is a pattern of Israel's enemies attacking Israel in order to make political gains - effectively expecting to be rewarded for aggression. World leaders, and way too many Israelis, are eager to let them get away with it.

Why Arafat died

Marie Antoinette compares her husband to Mandela

CNN interviews Suha Arafat, who compares her husband to Nelson Mandela.

Suha was interviewed for a CNN documentary series The Price of Kings. CNN claims it is the first time that Suha has agreed to be interviewed on camera. She was interviewed by CNN's Becky Anderson.

Following allegations within the Arab world that Israel poisoned Yasser Arafat, who died of a mysterious illness in 2004, Anderson asked Suha whether she would have wanted a full autopsy on his body.

"Yes, but it was the decision of the Palestinian Authority, and I respected their decision. Yasser died with his secrets with him and no one can know the truth now."

Well, some people, aside from Suha, known the truth. Like his personal physician, Dr. Ashraf al-Qurdi.

Let's go to the videotape.


Arafat's personal doctor : "Arafat died of AIDS" by Ibn-Khaldun

Back to Suha.

When asked why after years of silence did she decide to speak out now she said: "Because of the injustices that was exerted against my husband and myself all this time.

"This has made me speak about what happened especially the last days of Yasser, the last you know, after the intifada Yasser and myself were portrayed as devils. I was portrayed as very, very - as the Mary Antoinette of the Arab world."

Well, gee, I wonder why. Maybe that's what happens when you're the widow of the leader of an 'impoverished people,' and they have to pay you half a million dollars per year to live in Paris in addition to possibly having access to the Swiss bank accounts he stole from them.

"Did he have a conscience?" asked Anderson; "Of course he had a conscience. Yasser Arafat was the conscience – he was the Mandela of the Arab world, the Mandela of Palestine," Suha stated.

Mandela was smart enough to take a deal when he was offered one. Arafat set loose terrorists to commit random murders instead.

More on the filth of Yasser Arafat here.

May his name be obliterated. 

Suha: Lea Rabin Invited Me to Israel More Than Once

Breaking a lengthy silence, Suha Arafat, wife of former PLO terror leader Yasser Arafat, denied charges that she had embezzled millions of dollars from the Palestinian Authority. “I did not take money from Palestine,” Suha told an Egyptian journalist.

Several weeks ago Tunisia issued an international arrest warrant for Suha, who is wanted for questioning for allegedly absconding with Tunisian government and PA funds that had been meant to be used to build a school. She had been been a Tunisian citizen during the period when the corruption reportedly took place. In 2007, her Tunisian citizenship was removed by the same administration that was toppled from power earlier this year, partly due to similar charges of corruption.

In the interview, Suha said that some of the money in question had been used to build a playground for her and Yasser's daughter, Zahwa. “After 50 years of working for Palestine, does Arafat not deserve to have a playground for his daughter? He didn't buy jewelry or build factories for her. All he did was build a little playground in Tunisia. This is the only time he used money for Zahwa, and I can prove it,” she said.

The interview, broadcast on an Arab satellite channel, was the first time Zahwa Arafat appeared in public. Suha said she was planning to become a lawyer. “She has no interest in politics, after seeing what has happened to me.” Suha blamed most of her problems on unfounded accusations made by Leila Ben-Ali, the wife of the former Tunisian president. “I was her first victim, and she took revenge on me,” Suha said, discussing the falling out she had with Ben-Ali and how her new enemy spread rumors about her corruption, culminating with her being stripped of her Tunisian citizenship.

Suha is a French citizen, and Zahwa was born in Paris. When asked why her daughter was not born in Ramallah, where Yasser Arafat controlled the PA, Suha said she had decided against that, because she did not want her daughter to have anything to do with Israel. “I told the Israelis, you are the ones who destroyed Gaza, you destroyed our hospitals,” she said. PA Arabs, while not Israeli citizens, need an Israeli permit to travel abroad.

Suha added that she had been against the Oslo Accords and developing relations with Israel, and that she had turned down numerous invitations by Lea Rabin, deceased wife of former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, to visit Israel. “I said how can I visit Tel Aviv when our prisoners are still in prison,” she said.

Tunisia issues arrest warrant for Suha Arafat

Tunisia has issued an arrest warrant for Suha Arafat, the widow of 'Palestinian' leader Yasser Arafat. She is charged with - what else - corruption.

The allegations go back to a 2006 business deal, when Suha Arafat had a fallout with former first lady of Tunisia over the establishment of an international school in Tunis, AFP quoted Tunisian newspapers as saying.

In 2007, Suha was declared persona non grata in Tunisia and had her citizenship revoked, reportedly by presidential decree. Suha was reported to be living in Malta, at least several months a year, where she owns a home.

Since the ouster of former Tunisian dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, a number of former regime officials have been charged with corruption.

Suha was raised as a Catholic in Ramallah and Nablus and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Suha met Yasser Arafat when she was on assignment in Jordan for a French newspaper. She was immediately appointed as a public relations adviser to the PLO and later as an economic consultant to her husband. The two married secretly in 1990 at Arafat's house in Tunisia and kept the wedding secret for 15 months.

She drew sharp criticism from many Palestinians when she tried to prevent senior PA officials, including PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, from visiting her husband while he was being treated in a military hospital in Paris.

Heh.

Wikileaks: The Suha Arafat Affair; A pair of interesting cables from Wikileaks concerning Suha Arafat, Yasir Arafat's widow.

From 2006:

The Government of Tunisia's Official Journal of September 26 published a notice that Suha Arafat, wife of the late Palestinian Authority president, and her 11-year old daughter Zahwa had acquired Tunisian nationality. Mrs. Arafat and her daughter have been living in Tunisia since the 2004 death of Yasser Arafat, and Zahwa Arafat attends the American Cooperative School of Tunisia. Suha Arafat's presence in Tunisia long predates that, however. She had been a resident of Tunisia prior to her marriage, and, after residing in the Palestinian Territories from 1996-98, she returned in 1998, alternating between residences in France and Tunisia.

...We remain puzzled as to why Mrs. Arafat would want Tunisian citizenship...One possible motivation is that under Tunisian law, foreign participation in a totally non-exporting service industry cannot exceed 50 percent. Several months ago, Mrs. Arafat set up one such company -- to
build an international school in Tunis. Tunisian citizenship will allow her to control this company.

And then things went downhill. From 2007:

The GOT's decision last summer to revoke Suha Arafat's Tunisian citizenship, which had only been granted less than a year earlier, made international headlines. Since the appearance of the official register notice on August 7, the chattering class in Tunisia has not ceased to speculate about the reasons behind the decision. In a mid-October telcon with Ambassador Godec, Mrs. Arafat attributed her ouster to the personal animus of First Lady Leila Ben Ali, following a dispute over the forced closure of the Bouebdelli School, a well-respected private school. Had
it remained open, the Bouebdelli School would have represented serious competition to the new Carthage International School, a joint venture between the two First Ladies. It is doubtful that we will ever know all of the facts in this affair, but the stories of corruption swirling around the Carthage International School have a ring of truth to them.

...In a mid-October telcon with the Ambassador, Ms. Arafat blamed her ouster on the personal animus of First Lady Leila Ben Ali. "I can't believe what she's has done to me," Arafat exclaimed, "I've lost everything!" She charged that all of her properties in Tunisia had been confiscated, even by falsifying documents transferring ownership. (Note: It is rumored that Mrs. Arafat had invested -- and lost -- some 2.5 million euros in the Carthage International School. End Note.) In addition, she said, her friends and colleagues in Tunisia, including her banker, had also come under pressure. "Anyone who supports me is punished."

...Plenty of other theories have stoked the rumor mill in the Suha Arafat affair. One well-connected Palestinian resident in Tunisia told EmbOff that what sealed Mrs. Arafat's fate was that on a recent visit to Tripoli, she had asked Libyan Leader Qaddafi for money. Qaddafi had readily provided a hand-out, but he reportedly subsequently called President Ben Ali to chastise him for failing to provide adequately for the widow of the late Palestinian President. Ben Ali's acute embarrassment, so the story goes, quickly turned to wrath. It was not long before Mrs. Arafat's citizenship was revoked. Another theory holds that Suha Arafat was ousted because she had absconded with a significant amount of the first family's assets. Finally, in the face of persistent rumors that Mrs. Arafat had secretly married Belhassen Trabelsi, brother of the Tunisian First Lady, some commentators chalked up the whole ordeal to the failure of that relationship.

Some other juicy parts of that latter cable, including Suha's accusations of corruption towards the ruling family and the fact that the for-profit school had enjoyed great governmental largesse.

It seems that her Suha learned a bit about corruption during her marriage.