Ex-Arafat adviser: PA funded Arab Israeli parties
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH The Jerusalem Post 05/17/2012 17:20
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=270411

Muhammad Rashid, the former economic adviser to Yasser Arafat who is wanted
by the Palestinian Authority for embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars,
revealed on Thursday that the PA had provided financial aid to Arab parties
during general elections in Israel.

He also demanded an investigation into the source of PA President Mahmoud
Abbas’s wealth.

Rashid, who is currently in London, said that Abbas used to “take millions
of dollars from the Palestinian Authority and the private sector under the
pretext of helping Arab parties in Israeli elections.”

Better known as Khaled Salam, Rashid did not name the Israeli parties that
had received financial aid from Abbas.

His revelation came during an interview with the Saudi owned Al-Arabiya TV
station.

Rashid scoffed at the PA’s decision earlier this week to ask Interpol to
arrest him and hand him over for trial on charges of embezzlement and fraud,
allegedly committed during the years that he served as Arafat’s top
financial consultant.

A Kurd from Iraq, Rashid said he was prepared to report for interrogation
only before an independent commission of inquiry and not one that is
controlled by Abbas.

The PA’s Anti-Corruption Commission, which issued the arrest warrant against
him, is itself very corrupt, Rashid said.

He pointed out that two ministers in Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s new
cabinet have been accused of involvement in corruption scandals, but the
commission did not take any measures against them.

The former adviser, who is considered one of the wealthiest Palestinians in
the world, launched a scathing attack on Abbas, holding him and his two
businessmen sons responsible for corruption.

“When Mahmoud Abbas returned to the Palestinian territories [after the
signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993], I gave him $25,000 at the request of
the late president Yasser Arafat,” Rashid claimed.

“Today, he and his sons have palaces and property estimated at 15 million
Jordanian dinars [approximately $21m.] in Palestine, Jordan, Tunisia and
other places.”

Rashid said the timing of the arrest warrant against him was linked to a
series of interviews he gave to Al-Arabiya and to the PA’s fear that he
would expose various corruption scandals.

Rafik Natsheh, head of the commission in the West Bank, denied Rashid’s
charges, saying he had been wanted long before his TV appearance.

Natsheh added that the PA had previously summoned Rashid for questioning,
but the latter refused to comply. He said that Rashid would stand trial
whether in person or in absentia for his role in the theft of public funds.

Welcoming the PA’s decision to go after Rashid, several Palestinian
political analysts wondered whether other senior officials would also be
charged with corruption.

“The question is, how many Muhammad Rashids do we have in the Palestinian
arena?” asked analyst Nabil Batrawi.

“Where are the others who became wealthy by working in the public sector?
Where are the realtors who used to take money from investors who wanted to
come to Palestine? “Where are all those who used to take bribes and extort
investors?” he asked.