April 18, 2002

Arafat’s Paper Trail

Trove of captured documents a "smoking gun" for the leader and the Palestinian Authority.

By Gil Sedan

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• The Palestinian Authority was involved in the production of arms, such as rocket-propelled grenades, which they are specifically banned from having under the Oslo accords.

• The Palestinian Authority was directly involved in orchestrating anti-Israel incitement.

The Tanzim was deeply involved in daily Palestinian life, serving very much like a government within a government. Documents shed light on the scope of corruption within the Palestinian Authority, with large amounts of money directed to public figures for personal favors or bribery, without sufficient control over the allocation of funds. According to the documents, this trend has actually worsened since the reports of corruption in the Palestinian Authority caused a stir about five years ago. In addition, there was no direct division between the Palestinian Authority and local organizations, with a lot of inefficient duplication, resulting in waste of money and poor government. Most of these documents were handed over to the United States before Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in the region. The drive was intended to halt American pressure on Israel to abandon its West Bank incursion and to convince the Americans that Arafat was indeed deeply and actively involved in terrorism. However, it was quickly overshadowed by Powell's mission on the ground.