Plundering the Palestinian People's Money

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

A news item caught my attention: the Jordanian government has cancelled an investment agreement with Mohammed Rashid worth 845 million dollars. I asked about the matter, and I was told that this person is Khalid Salam, one of the Palestinian revolutionaries who worked with Arafat. This raises a great question about this money and where it came from. Revolutionaries are supposed to be poor, or at least not to be marked by wealth, especially those we used to hear slept in caves and lived on little food. Revolutionaries are the ones who safeguard people’s money and honor, and do not covet wealth or status.

If the reports are true, then this “revolutionary” possesses a great deal of money, and if his contract with Jordan runs into these hundreds of millions, then what is his real fortune? Where did he get all this money while remaining at Arafat’s side?

—reported in the media about Tunisia’s expulsion of Arafat’s wife from Tunisia. Why did this happen, and is there money connected to this matter? This is something we must insist on opening an investigation into. We will ask our Tunisian brothers to open this file as soon as conditions in Tunisia stabilize.

At the general level, the people know—and perhaps every individual among the Palestinian people knows—people who were once financially destitute and who suddenly began showing signs of power and unreasonable wealth. A person’s material circumstances may improve over time, but sudden wealth arouses suspicion and raises questions. Where are the investigative committees? People who were once unable to secure their daily bread now wear neckties worth 300 dollars apiece, and people who never knew a formal suit their whole lives now wear suits worth 2,000 dollars. And so on.

Instead of merely complaining about taxes and their growing burden, should people not insist on knowing the channels through which money leaks away? Where does people’s money go, and who is responsible for the plunder, or for the recklessness with this money? This is the people’s responsibility, and if they do not arm themselves with the courage to defend their rights, or to know these rights and hold fast to them, then recklessness with their resources will continue.

And a people that does not wish to defend its rights has no path before it except humiliation and disgrace.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “نهب أموال الشعب الفلسطيني” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.