Tarnished Legacy of Arafat
From The Atlantic:
-Iyad Sarraj, human-rights activist and director of the leading mental-health institute in Gaza
Arafat finally is exposed as the petty, corrupt, and ineffective leader and not the swashbuckling freedom fighter he so successfully portrayed himself as. The Palestinian people deserve better than a man who between 1995 and 2000 diverted "$900 million from the Palestinian Authority coffers" and who along with his cronies stole over "one half of the total of $7 billion in foreign aid." All of this money not spent on housing, education, and social services for poor Palestinians and used to buy homes and cars for his wife and lackeys.
These claims are not even from the biased mouths of the Israelis or Americans, but from Arafat's own confidents. They saw up close and personal the decay and ineptness of the PA, and they knew Arafat was responsible.
Arafat's mark on history will be a black one. A man who provided no leadership, no state, but lots of rhetoric and hyperbole that did nothing to accomplish the dream and goal of the Palestinian people, their own state.
"'I believe that the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians in one way or the other is between development and underdevelopment, civilization and backwardness. Israel was established on the rule of law, on democratization, and certain principles that would advance Israel, while the Arabs and the Palestinians were waiting always for the prophet, for the rescuer, for the savior, the mahdi. Arafat came, and everyone hung their hats on him without realizing that there is a big gap between the rescuer and the actual work that needs to be done. This is where the Palestinians lost again the battle. They lost it in '48 because of their backwardness, ignorance, and lack of organization in how to confront the Zionist enemy. They lost it when they had the chance to build a state, because the PA was absolutely corrupt and disorganized.'" (emphasis mine)
-Iyad Sarraj, human-rights activist and director of the leading mental-health institute in Gaza
Arafat finally is exposed as the petty, corrupt, and ineffective leader and not the swashbuckling freedom fighter he so successfully portrayed himself as. The Palestinian people deserve better than a man who between 1995 and 2000 diverted "$900 million from the Palestinian Authority coffers" and who along with his cronies stole over "one half of the total of $7 billion in foreign aid." All of this money not spent on housing, education, and social services for poor Palestinians and used to buy homes and cars for his wife and lackeys.
These claims are not even from the biased mouths of the Israelis or Americans, but from Arafat's own confidents. They saw up close and personal the decay and ineptness of the PA, and they knew Arafat was responsible.
Arafat's mark on history will be a black one. A man who provided no leadership, no state, but lots of rhetoric and hyperbole that did nothing to accomplish the dream and goal of the Palestinian people, their own state.
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