May. 14, 2002 - Shin Bet says Tanzim leader confirms Arafat funded terror attacks
By ARIEH O'SULLIVAN
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's direct involvement in personally approving funding for terrorist attacks has been reconfirmed by details released by the Shin Bet security agency from its interrogation of senior Fatah Tanzim leader Nasser Abu Hamid.
Abu Hamid also told his interrogators that in his meetings with Arafat, the PA chairman spoke in anachronisms and did not appear capable of leading a state.
West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti and Barghouti aides drew similar links during their interrogation, according to information released by the Prime Minister's Office earlier this month. In addition, documents discovered by the IDF in Arafat's elaborate Ramallah compound show that Arafat personally approved payments to senior terrorists wanted by Israel.
Abu Hamid said the funding came through Barghouti, commander of the Tanzim Aksa Martyrs Brigades. The monies came from the PA treasury, he said, adding he had to fill out forms asking Arafat to provide the funding.
According to interrogators, Hamid said Arafat signed the requests and he received the funds by check. Sometimes the amounts came to thousands of dollars.
Security forces arrested Hamid in the Ramallah area during Operation Defensive Shield and have been interrogating him since.
At one point, Rayed Karmi, the Tanzim leader from Tulkarm who was eventually killed by Israel in a targeted interception, informed Hamid of having murdered two Israelis. Karmi told Hamid that the murders caused the Israeli security cabinet to convene. They both understood that this reactionary response by Israel put the initiative in their hands, he said, which strengthened the group's motivation and resolve.
By 2002, Hamid said, the Tanzim started to carry out suicide attacks inside Israel. He said he was overwhelmed by scores of volunteers in the Ramallah area for such attacks.
Hamid told his interrogators that when he was released from Israeli prison in 1999, the PA was controlled by former PLO figures who came from abroad, and not the local leaders.
He drew a picture of growing frustration among the indigenous Palestinians over being passed over for choice posts in the PA, which would go to cronies from abroad.
Hamid's story is a microcosm of the conflict itself. He said that in 2000 he could sense that a conflict was about to erupt, and he acquired arms for himself.
"According to Hamid, the roots of the outbreak of the intifada were planted in the internal process that the Palestinian society was going through and could not be blamed on any specific Israeli provocation," said a statement from security officials issued by the Prime Minister's Office.
Hamid said he and his fellow Tanzim leaders felt the only way to break up the corrupt PA would be to ignite the territories in violence. He said that then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount on September 28, 2000 was not the catalyst, but rather the "match" that ignited the already teeming Palestinian street. It was bound to come, he said.
Hamid said he and other top Tanzim commanders saw in the outbreak of violence an opportunity to totally "flip the tables," and so made sure that the violence would not cease.
At first, Hamid and his Tanzim gunmen would fire from Palestinian-controlled areas, but later they started to carry out attacks on bypass roads, he said. The Tanzim activists' reputation grew in the Palestinian street, to which Hamid credited the great bitterness most people felt against the PA. |
