Suha Daoud Arafat, née Suha Daoud Tawil (born 1963), is the widow of the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
When speculation arose about the imminent death of her husband in November 2004, Suha's role in Arafat's life, her place in his financial succession plans and her absence from Palestine attracted criticism from some within the Palestinian Authority.[1]
In 2005, Nigerian criminal gangs used her name in some of their Advance fee fraud scams propagated thoughout the world by email
[2].
Early life
Suha was born in Jerusalem in 1963 into an affluent Christian family initially from Nablus then later Ramallah. Her father[3] was Daoud Tawil, the Oxford-educated heir to a banking fortune, while her mother, Raymonda Tawil, was a politically active Palestinian nationalist poet and writer, who ran the Palestine Press Service in Jerusalem and was frequently placed under house arrest by the Israeli police.
Suha attended the convent Rosary Sisters' School in Jerusalem and later the Sorbonne in Paris[4]. Her mother introduced her to Arafat in Amman, Jordan when Suha was working as a freelance journalist, based in Paris[5]. Later, Suha was hired by Arafat to do public relations for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). She subsequently became his Economics Adviser.
Marriage to Arafat
She was married to Arafat in 1990, when she was aged 27, in a secret ceremony in the then PLO headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia. She converted to Islam before their wedding. The marriage, which was kept secret for two years, came as a surprise to many Palestinians. For years, Arafat had declared the reason he was single was because he was "married to the Palestinian cause."
Suha has been criticized by some Palestinians for not staying with her husband when confined to his headquarters in Ramallah by the Israelis from 2002. According to some reports, they led almost separate lives since his return to the occupied territories, each with separate quarters in their home. One report said her apartment is decorated with images of the Pope and Jesus, as well as one of a young Arafat with a gun. There has been speculation that her husband refused to alter the financial arrangements set out in his will according to Suha's requests. Arafat's fortune has been estimated at anything between $300 million and $11 billion.
Controversial lifestyle
After the Oslo Accords and the consequent return of the Palestinian leadership from exile in 1994, Suha moved with her husband to Gaza City, where she established and led her own aid organization, and engaged in political efforts to improve the status of women in Palestinian society. In 1995 she gave birth to Zahwa in Paris, named after Arafat's mother, who died when he was three years old.
Suha's decision to stay at a French hospital to give birth to her child angered many Palestinians living in difficult conditions in the Gaza Strip, especially after she was quoted as saying that sanitary conditions in Palestinian hospitals were "disastrous."
After violence erupted in Gaza in September 2000 with the launch of the second Intifada, she took her daughter and went to live with her mother in Paris. Her departure further enraged her critics, who said she was escaping from the daily hardships of life under occupation in favor of a lavish lifestyle in France. Reports in the Arab and Western media about her shopping sprees were reprinted and distributed as leaflets.
Her dyed-blonde hair, frequent purchases of expensive French designer clothes and a high-profile social life in Paris were in contrast to her husband's spartan existence, his trademark military suit and austere obsession with politics. Suha once complained to an Egyptian newspaper that her husband never gave her any jewels and lived like a bachelor. "When I complain of being neglected, he offers me souvenirs and symbols of the Palestinian revolution," she said in a rare interview.
She did, however, win support for refusing on principle to accept a VIP pass from the Israelis that would have allowed her to cross Israeli roadblocks without the hassle that most Palestinians face.
Some criticize her for not being in touch with the average Palestinian. One policeman who accompanied Suha on a visit to Gaza's poor said: "While Arafat sits on the floor with ordinary people, holds their hands and kisses them, Suha did everything she could to avoid touching them. I once saw Arafat kiss a wounded man's groin, but Suha sits as far away as possible. You get the feeling that if she were to move even an inch closer, she would become ill."
Financial dealings
The Palestinian Authority is reported as paying Suha $100,000 a month on her husband's behalf from the PA budget, the bulk of which comes from international aid donations. Although Suha did not deny the story, she accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of being behind the claim.
French prosecutors announced last year 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 Enchaine that the inquiry had been launched after information provided by the Bank of France and a government anti-money-laundering body. Asked about the huge sums of money, an angry Suha asked: "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."
In 2004 the Sunday Times asserted [6] that relations between Suha and her husband's staff were poisonous. It also claimed much of Arafat's personal fortune in the 1980's came from drug trafficking in Lebanon, which has been spent on maintaining the allegiance of key allies.
An Israeli press report claimed that Arafat had entrusted a political last will and testament to Suha in which he named Farouk Kadoumi , considered the most radical member of his inner circle, as his successor.
During Arafat's final illness, Suha refused, under French law, to permit Palestinian leaders into the room where he lay in a coma. After negotiations, she agreed to allow Ahmed Qureia, accompanied by the head of Arafat's personal guard, to enter his room. Her constant advisor during this time was Pierre Rizk , the Maronite Lebanese head of the intelligence service of the Phalanga during the Lebanese civil war, who had power of attorney in financial negotiations between Suha and the Palestinians. Reported by the media to be personally close to Suha, Rizk negotiated a monthly ongoing payment of $1.8 million to her with an initial payment of $20 million in return for her assistance in locating all Palestinian funds.
Political opinions
She told a London-based Saudi newspaper there would have been "no greater honour" than sacrificing any son of hers to the struggle and has backed suicide operations. "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."
Suha embarrassed the former United States president's wife Senator Hillary Clinton at a West Bank function by launching a tirade against Israel for upping cancer rates in the Palestinian areas. A senior Palestinian official was forced to apologize to Washington. Hillary Clinton, forced to remain on the dais during the tirade, afterwards denounced the remarks.
Husband's Illness and Aftermath, Struggle for Millions in Arafat Estate
With her husband ailing, a distressed Suha charged that "Abbas, Qorei and Shaath, who are trying to inherit his power, want to bury Arafat alive," referring to PLO acting chairman Mahmoud Abbas, prime minister Ahmed Qureia and foreign minister Nabil Shaath. They deferred a trip to Paris until they received word they would be welcome. She later appeared to have reconciled with them, embracing Qureia upon his visit 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, Ramadan fasting and intense heat overwhelmed many mourners.
Suha Arafat lives and her daughter Zahwa and her mother, Raymonda Tawil, divide their time between two luxurious Paris residences. One is
the entire floor at the luxury Bristol Hotel in Paris. The concierge indicates that at the Bristol a suite and 19 rooms go for $16,000 a night; the other residence is a nearby series of apartments in the fashionable Neuilly quarter. A third residence is in the French countryside.
Up to her husband's death, Suha Arafat was living on $100,000 a month from Palestinian Authority coffers.
CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl in "60 Minutes", an American news show, investigated Arafat's financial situation, and discovered as well that Suha Arafat's mother, Raymonda Tawil, is also living lavishly - apparently off international largesse and the Palestinian taxpayers.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat amassed a personal fortune estimated at $1 billion to $3 billion.
Nigerian scammers use Suha Arafat's name
In 2005, Nigerian criminal gangs used her name in some of their Advance fee fraud scams propagated thoughout the world by email
[7]. Some of the emails used referred to the Wikipedia article about Ms Arafat. Emails sent out as part of the criminal plot, which was in no way associated with Suha Arafat, falsely purported to be from her, asking for help to recover $20,000,000, and promising the recipient a share of the money for his help. This was simply a false promise intended to prepare the victim to hand over his own money in the vain hope of seeing a share of the fictitious fortune.
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