Report: Rampant corruption led Arafat's regime to ignite war

JERUSALEM — The government of Prime Minister Ehud Barak has acknowledged that the Palestinian Authority has been corrupt from day one.

A report published by Barak's office attributes the current PA mini-war with Israel, in part, to heavy Palestinian criticism of corruption by Arafat's regime. Barak's aides said approval rates fell well below 40 percent and that a vast majority of respondents thought of the PA institutions as venal, corrupt and incompetent.

The book listed scores of PA violations of its agreements with Israel. The so-called White Book said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat raised the prospect of holy war with Israel from the day he signed an interim peace accord with Israel in 1993, Middle East Newsline reported.

The report was prepared by Israeli military intelligence's research division. At first, Barak intended to distribute the report to embassies and to the public at large. But aides said the prime minister changed his mind and delayed publication for a month.

They said Barak allowed the distribution of the report to embassies without any instructions. Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami was said to have opposed publication of the report, fearing that Israel will be accused of abandoning the peace process with the Palestinians.

The corruption focused on a series of monopolies Arafat granted to his aides, the Israeli document said. They included businesses granted to his economic adviser, Mohammed Rashid, the Masri family in Nablus, and PA security chiefs Mohammed Dahlan and Jibril Rajoub.

"The results are clear to see: in a climate hostile to real competition and to transparent free market practices, blatant disregard for personal property, bribery, corruption and mismanagement of domestic and aid funds, as well as the lack of compliance with commitments to refrain from those customs have been well documented by the PA's own public monitoring department, the "Donor countries" and numerous NGO's," the report said.

The report does not list the Israeli partners of the heads of PA monopolies. Several of them are colleagues of Barak and Labor Party leaders.

The Israeli report said the PA has refused to help the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees despite the appeals from his friends in the West.

"It is not surprising that Arafat may have felt more comfortable igniting a nationalist struggle — and pinning the blame for future deprivations on Israel — than focusing on the urgent need to reform the Palestinian system," the report said.