TEL AVIV Ñ A U.S. national has filed a 100 million shekel suit against the
European Union in Tel Aviv District Court. The plaintiff, who was paralyzed in a
Palestinian attack, charged on May 20 that the EU knowingly allowed its monthly
allotment of 10 million euros to be diverted for the financing of
Palestinian terrorism.
The plaintiff, Steven Blumberg, plans to also sue the PLO in the United
States to obtain damages. Suspects in the attack on the Blumberg family were
PA employees and included the chief of police in the West Bank city of
Kalkilya.
Israeli military sources have released Palestinian Authority
documents that they said demonstrate the laundering of foreign donor funds, Middle East Newsline reported.
The sources said the PA conceals about $10 million a month through the
exchange of Arab and European Union aid from U.S. dollars into Israeli
shekels.
The PA documents showed that Palestinian security officers were paid a
shekel equivalent of their dollar salary that was 25 percent lower than the
market rate. In addition, Palestinian security officers had to pay 2.5
percent of their salary to the ruling Fatah Party.
"We talking about money-laundering by the PA," a senior military source
said. "This answers the question of how Palestinian terrorism was financed."
In a related development, Saudi Arabia reported granting $2.6 billion in
aid to the Palestinians during the recent year. A Saudi government document
quoted by the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat on Tuesday said more than
one-third of the aid was comprised of special allocations approved by the
Arab League over the last 18 months.
Palestinian insurgents are said to have launched an
offensive against Israel that includes numerous suicide bombings.
Israeli intelligence sources said the two suicide bombings that took
place on Sunday and Monday represent the start of a series of attacks. The
sources said Palestinian insurgents from a range of groups have planned
attacks
on Israel from the Mediterranean and suicide bombings in Israeli cities.
The insurgents planned three suicide bombings in Israel, the sources
said, as well as an attack in which a ton of explosives was to
have been detonated. The attack was aimed to destroy a Tel Aviv skyscraper.
