Suha Arafat, in Malta with a US$12,000 monthly pension from PA

Suha Arafat, the widower of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has admitted to receiving US$12,000 a month from the Palestinian Authority, which also pays her Malta home rent.

27 November 2011, 12:00am
by Karl Stagno-Navarra

1 min read

Suha Arafat denies receiving $50,000 pension from Palestinian Authority

Speaking to the London-based Saudi Arabic language daily 'Sharqalawsat' this week, Suha Arafat categorically denied being paid US$50,000 from the Palestinian Authority.

"They pay me US$12,000, which is Abu Ammar's (Yasser Arafat) pension as the head of the PLO and Fatah movement... the reports that I get US$50,000 a month are mere baseless and bad rumours... I receive this sum at the start of every month, and my house rent is also paid by the Palestinian Authority," the widow said.

Suha Arafat - who has recently been catapulted to world headlines about an alleged Tunisian investigation on her links to former first lady Leila Trabelsi - said that even seven years on, she still has no information about what caused Arafat's death in France back in November 2004.

Arafat's nephew Nasser Al-Qidwa - who spoke last week in Ramallah during a commemoration ceremony marking seven years since the death of the former Palestinian strong-man - expressed his conviction that Arafat was poisoned, and pointed a finger towards Israel for responsibility.

But Arafat's widow refuses to remain silent in the wake of persistent allegations.

In another interview from Malta - this time with Egyptian journalist Wael Al Abrashi - she rebutted allegations that she stole land and donations to the Palestinian Authority.

"I didn't take lands from the state of Palestine," Suha said, revealing some interesting details about her late husband's private life.

According to Suha, Arafat was fond of watching Tom and Jerry cartoons but did not like listening to music.

He was also teaching his daughter how to use a gun when she was three years old, and always took off his famous military fatigues and the traditional Palestinian headgear Koffiya, and wore sport clothes.

More from Karl Stagno-Navarra

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She may receive "only" $12,000 a month but there is still the question of all the money taken while Arafat was still leader; if I remember correctly, at one point the Arafats had prime real estate in Paris and on the French Riviera... In any case, another commenter talked about the "poverty" in Gaza and the West Bank. That is the propaganda which is disseminated by a very efficient Palestinian PR team. In reality, according to the World Bank, the Palestinians have a higher life expectancy, a higher per capita income, and a higher literacy rate than just about any of their Arab neighbours in Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere in the Middle East (except perhaps for those Palestinians living in Israel!). Such statistics would seem to suggest that they are far better off than we are being told. I specifically remember one Gazan complaining after Israeli bombs during the war a few years ago leveled his house. " I just finished building it! " he complained. "It cost me 125,OOO Euro". I wish I were so poor! In any case, if the Palestinian Authority can still be paying $12,000 a month to a woman who certainly has lots more salted away somewhere in Switzerland or wherever, then they are not exactly poverty-stricken!

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U ghaliex le. X'ghanda nieqes minn mara ohra ta' xi president? Intom tafu li anke l-ex presidenti ta' Malta jibqghu jghixu gol-lussu, b'xuffier u kok maghhom sal-mewt, barra il-pensjoni kbira taghhom. Dawk il-benificji jigu max-xol. If its good for the goose then it's good for the gander!!

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While she is enjoying her pension here the Palestinianp people are barely making a living in Gaza and the West Bank. Is she and her cronies the reason why a 'Palestinian problem' was created? Never in the history of the world has a people been used as much as the Palestinians by their so-called leaders!

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Mela ghandha biex tiehu cafe'.