Legislator accuses Palestinian Authority of secret accounts

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.