Mrs. Arafat returns briefly to the world stage.
[Jpost] Suha Arafat,...the fashionable, formerly Catholic, bottle-blond Palestinian expat who ran off and married the elderly PLO Number 1 in a queer sort of patriotism, then lived to regret it...
the widow of former PLO leader Yasser Arafat, ...formally Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini. Born in Cairo in 1929, and educated there, died in 2004 in a French hospital. The flamboyant and brutal USSR-trained terrorist failed to destroy Israel in the service of Arab transnational socialism under the guise of Palestinian national liberation, though he was lauded internationally for his efforts. After founding Fatah sometime in the 1950s, Arafat was chairman of the PLO from 1968 until he died, probably of AIDS from unusual interactions with his personal guards, though his people claimed Israel had poisoned him. Whether the child of the wife he took near the end of his life was also his has never been tested, nor the rumour that she inherited his ill-gotten millions...
has apologized for the burning of Emirati flags in protest of the normalization deal between the UAE and Israel. The apology, which appeared on Instagram account called "officialsuhayasserarafat," was welcomed by some UAE citizens but criticized by several Paleostinians.Some Paleostinians expressed concern over the harsh response of the PA leadership to the Israel-UAE accord. They accused the PA leadership of an "overreaction" and warned that scenes of Paleostinians burning UAE flags and photos of bin Zayed would cause great damage to the Paleostinians, particularly those living in the Gulf.
PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat
...negotiated the Oslo Accords with Israel. He has been chief Paleostinian negotiator since 1995. He is currently negotiating with Israel to establish a de jure Paleostinian state...
appealed to Paleostinians not to harm the symbols of the UAE. "The Emirati flag is a symbol that must be respected, and so are all other symbols of Emirati illusory sovereignty," he said.
Erekat’s statement came after many Gulf citizens strongly condemned the Paleostinian leadership’s campaign of incitement against the UAE. Several UAE and Saudi academics, journalists and political activists accused the Paleostinians of being "ungrateful" and denounced the burning of Emirati flags and pictures of bin Zayed.
Suha’s apology, however, drew sharp criticism from other Paleostinians, including bigwigs in the West Bank who said that she was not entitled to speak on behalf of the Paleostinian people.
Some Paleostinians claimed that the apology was a sign of the close relationship between Suha Arafat and Mohammed Dahlan, the deposed Fatah operative who serves as special adviser to bin Zayed. Based in Abu Dhabi, Dahlan is considered an archrival of Abbas.
Suha, who does not hold any official position in the Paleostinian Authority, has been living in Malta for the past decade.
After the death of her husband in 2004, she and her daughter, Zahwa, moved to Tunisia and obtained Tunisian citizenship. In 2007, Tunisia revoked her citizenship. Four years later, the Tunis Court of First Instance issued an international arrest warrant for her in connection with a corruption scandal that involved the former Tunisian first lady, Leila Ben Ali.