Ramallah, West Bank - Suha Arafat, the once estranged but loyal wife of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who has incited anger for her extravagant lifestyle abroad, has rarely left her husband's side since his transfer for medical treatment in Paris.I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME! WHERE'S THE FRIGGIN' MONEY, YOU UGLY BASTARD!!!!
Thirty-four years younger than Arafat, the French-educated daughter of a wealthy Palestinian Christian couple first met the man who was to become her husband 20 years ago when she was a student at the Sorbonne. Arafat hired her to do public relations for the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) when he was exiled in Tunis. She later became his economic adviser before they married secretly in 1990, only revealing their union two years later.
Would YOU admit you were married to him?
Their only child, a daughter called Zahwa, was born in 1995 in a private hospital in Paris - but marital life quickly degenerated into de facto separation.
Ein-al-Hellhole's maternity hospital must've been booked up...
With her dyed-blonde hair, Suha's penchant for
She spends the graft, whereas he stashes it away.
Suha, a convert to Islam, 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.
What do I look like? A UN representative, you cheap prick!
However she later denied that her marriage was on the rocks and called Yasser "the happiest of husbands" who sang "Frere Jacques" - the only French song he knows - to their daughter.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...
| "Brother Jackie, Brother Jackie, Go to sleep, go to sleep, Or I'll break your elbow, or I'll break your elbow..." |
Yeah, too bad she don't have one to give. Funny how that worked out.
After leaving the Middle East in early 2001, to the fury of Palestinians who saw her as betraying their cause for luxury, Suha has since divided her time between Paris and Tunis, where the PLO was based. Despite her estrangement, six months before rushing to Ramallah to oversee Arafat's transfer to Paris for medical care, Suha said that she was prepared to return to the Palestinian territories "the minute I am asked to".
...and not one minute sooner. It's "yucky" there...
During her husband's agonising decline in a French hospital, she has been one of the few people permanently at his bedside - the picture of a devoted wife watching her husband battling a possibly fatal illness.
THE MONEY! WHERE'S DID YOU HIDE THE MONEY!!!TELL ME, YOU BASTARD!!!
It has been a stark comparison to the public blunders and lack of tact that caused headaches for the Palestinian leadership earlier in their marriage. Hailing Hillary Clinton as the first lady she most admired, Suha embarrassed the former United States president's wife 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 apologise to Washington.
We're sorry our asshole president's wife made your asshole president's wife look bad. A thousand pardons...
Last year, France opened a preliminary investigation into the transfer of large sums of money of undetermined origin to Paris bank accounts she owns. Suha accused her husband's arch-foe, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of being behind the subsequent press reports.
Looks like the investigation's still in the "preliminary" stage. Probably will be for quite some time, like, forever...