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A Palestinian militant from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a terrorist group linked to the Fatah Party. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners May 18, 2006 |
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Israel said Wednesday that a captured former Palestinian finance official admitted using foreign donor money to finance millions of dollars in arms purchases, on the direct orders from then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said Fouad Shobaki, snatched by the Israelis in a March raid on a Palestinian prison, told his interrogators that as head of finance for the Palestinian security services he channeled at least $9 million in aid money and public funds to buy arms, ammunition, and explosives, some of which was used by the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a terrorist group linked with Arafat's Fatah organization.
"According to Shobaki, the financing for these war materiel purchases came from international assistance, tax revenues from the Gaza Strip, customs revenues transferred by Israel and funds from Arab countries," the Israeli statement said, without elaborating.
Arafat suspended Shobaki in 2002, when Israel accused him of bankrolling a foiled plan to smuggle 50 tons of weapons by sea from Iran to the Palestinian Authority. Israel intercepted the weapons ship "Karine A," in the Red Sea. A Palestinian court opened proceedings against him but never reached a verdict.
Arafat died in November 2004. Mahmoud Abbas was elected to replace him as president of the Palestinian Authority in January 2005.
Shobaki was being held in prison in the Samarian town of Jericho when Israeli troops and police laid siege to the building and captured him, along with the leader of the terrorist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and four PFLP members wanted by Israel in connection with the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.
The Israeli statement gave no indication if or when Israel intended to file charges against Shobaki.
It named a number of senior Palestinian officials as getting money from Shobaki to buy arms, among them Arafat's West Bank security chief, Jibril Rajoub. Rajoub, no longer in office, said his men used the funding to buy up weapons illegally held by militants in an attempt to reduce violence.
"In the first years of the Palestinian Authority, we had to collect weapons from the street and some of those were bought," he said on Wednesday. "We had to pay money for them because we couldn't confiscate them at that time."
He did not say how much was paid or give details of the arms purchased.
AP contributed to this report.
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