Legislator accuses Palestinian Authority of secret accounts
Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Monday, December 11, 2000
RAMALLAH — A Palestinian legislator has accused Palestinian
leaders of opening secret foreign bank accounts and sending their children
to safety abroad.
Palestinian Legislative Council member Hussam Khader made the accusation
on a call-in program on Palestinian Authority television. It was the first
time that a senior Palestinian accused the leadership of engaging in
corruption amid the six-week mini-war with Israel.
Khader said that 50 senior PA officials sent their children abroad amid
the war with Israel even as the leadership encouraged violence in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. The legislator said that the senior officials also
opened bank accounts abroad.
Marwan Kanafani, the host of the PA television program and an adviser to
PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, did not respond to the charge. Khader was not
allowed to detail his accusation.
Khader voiced muted criticism over the last few weeks that the families
of senior PA officials were nowhere to be seen during the clashes against
Israel. Several children of PA security officers were killed in the
fighting, including a nephew of PA security chief Mohammed Dahlan.
Monday, December 11, 2000
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