The Palestinian Authority (PA) is preparing to file formal charges against dozens of current and former officials accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars. Critics, however, describe the current campaign as being too little too late, given the rampancy of corruption and the radical -- and destabilising -- work that must be done in order to stem the tide of corruption.
"At the moment, we have all the cases, which include some related to cabinet ministers and former ministers," he said.
Reliable sources told Al-Ahram Weekly that the PA security agencies warned the PA leadership that an all-out campaign against corruption would seriously destabilise "the Palestinian national enterprise" and hurt the image of Fatah, especially vis-à-vis its arch rival, Hamas.
In Dura, in south Hebron, one former director-general who was number two at a revenue-generating ministry reportedly took millions of dollars in the form of "commissions, bribes and indirect profits". When confronted by interrogators and reminded he was poor fairly recently, he reportedly said he was the son of a martyr and that the wealth he acquired was legitimate.
Some critics argue that the PA is only pursuing "petty thieves" while ignoring the "big ones" whose names they won't mention.
Fatah never disclosed details of the financial settlement with Suha Arafat who, according to some sources, threatened to resort to the French justice system to collect an undisclosed but large sum of money deposited in French banks under Arafat's name.
According to French law, only the widow of a deceased person has the right to claim his wealth.
Arafat's widow had lost tens of millions of dollars in failed businesses in Tunisia, especially after falling into disfavour with now former Tunisian first lady Leila Trabelsi. Suha Arafat eventually was stripped of Tunisian citizenship due to bad relations with Trabelsi.
Youssef Rabaie is a veteran lawyer from Hebron specialised in fighting corruption. He told the Weekly that the current anti- corruption campaign by the PA would be credible only if every individual and official involved with the PA was investigated.
"We will soon reach the point where we ask ourselves who will investigate whom? Frankly, the PA is not fit or qualified to investigate corruption. The corrupt can't investigate the corrupt."
Indeed, corruption permeates the entire PA, built as it was on the PLO model where one person, namely Yasser Arafat, took all the decisions and controlled all the money.
Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah
Palestinian Journalist in Ramallah
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