Bloomberg publiserte for noen dager siden en detaljert oversikt over hvordan Yassir Arafat brukte de hundrevis av millioner dollar som er «forsvunnet» fra den palestinske statskassen. Alt fra egyptiske mobiltelefonselskaper til amerikanske bowlinghaller (!) ble finansiert med midler som skulle brukes til å skaffe palestinerne ordentlige levekår.

Arafat, who died on Nov. 11 at age 75, disclosed $799 million of investments in documents the Palestinian Authority has released over the past two years that show he didn’t just invest in building basic services in the West Bank and Gaza.

At a time when the authority was starved for funds, Arafat’s money managers placed bets from Tel Aviv to Silicon Valley on venture capital funds, software startups and telecommunications companies.

«Arafat was notoriously secretive, and he spread the money all over,» says Rachel Ehrenfeld, director of the New York-based American Center for Democracy and author of «Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It» (Bonus Books, 2003). «He didn’t give the public a view of the investments until the donor community protested about corruption.»