Reuters Posted online: Tuesday, November 09, 2004 at 1202 hours IST
Ramallah (West Bank), November 9: Yasser Arafat's wife never charmed Palestinians by leading an easy life abroad while he endured Israel's siege at home. Now they are enraged over her isolation of the revered leader as he lies near death in Paris.
Palestinians lashed out on Monday at Suha Arafat, 41, as a self-styled "queen" who had damaged the dignity of the man who symbolises their national cause and muddied his succession by keeping those needing to know in the dark about his condition.
Resentment brewing since Suha secretly married the lifelong bachelor twice her age in 1992 erupted on Monday as she accused his aides of plotting to "bury him alive" and they accused her of treating him as "private property".
Some branded Suha worse than Imelda Marcos because she had moved to an elegant haven in Paris when Middle East fighting began in 2000, whereas the luxury-loving Philippines first lady stood by her husband before he fell in a 1986 popular uprising.
"While we have all suffered from the Israeli occupation, she (Suha) has been living it up in Paris. Someone has to silence this woman. She is a disgrace to all Palestinians," said Rami Kayed, a taxi driver in Arafat's West Bank base town Ramallah.
"Suha was a mistake of President Arafat. We knew nothing about her and now she has suddenly become our queen," said Khaled Ali, a university student in Gaza City.
Aside from a phone call to an Arabic-language television channel, Suha Arafat has declined to talk to reporters since her husband's health took a turn for the worse.
Many Palestinians were surprised when word trickled out in 1992 of the Muslim Arafat's marriage to Suha, a Christian from the well-known Tawil family in Ramallah. Officials said at the time she had converted to Islam.
With her uncovered blonde hair and pricey Western designer clothes, Suha raised eyebrows during her public outings in the generally conservative and Muslim Palestinian territories. Her appearances became rarer shortly before the uprising broke out.
In February this year, French prosecutors opened an inquiry into transfers totalling 9 million euros ($11.5 million) into bank accounts held in France by Suha, based on information supplied by the government's money-laundering watchdog.
Suha denied living off lavish sums improperly diverted from Palestinian coffers throughout a four-year-old uprising that has brought crushing Israeli military crackdowns and plunged many Palestinians into poverty.
"All this money ($11.5 million) came and comes in a legal way. What is strange about the Palestinian president sending money to his family and wife who care for Palestinian interests abroad?" she told the London-based pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.
DEPARTURE AFTER ISRAELI MISSILE ATTACK
She and Zahwa, the daughter she bore to Arafat in 1995, left for Paris at the start of the Palestinian revolt in 2000 after their Gaza house was hit in an Israeli missile barrage on a nearby compound of Arafat's security guard. The two were unhurt.
Zahwa, educated in French, calls Arafat "Papa" and has not seen her father since 2000. Arafat asked to see his daughter when he arrived in Paris and spoke to her by phone.
Palestinian officials who had served Arafat loyally through four precarious decades of war, peace and war again with Israel were offended when Suha alighted in Ramallah briefly on Oct. 29 to take control of Arafat's evacuation to Paris.
He flew to France for emergency treatment after 2 1/2 years trapped inside his Ramallah compound by Israeli forces.
After a week of futile attempts to pin down details of his condition, Arafat's No. 2 Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie flew to Paris on Monday to see for themselves -- despite Suha's having accused them of trying to "bury him alive".
"I appeal to you to be aware of the scope of the conspiracy. Abu Ammar (Arafat's nom de guerre) is well and is coming back to his homeland!" Suha shouted on Arabic al-Jazeera satellite TV.
"(Her) comments have created a great deal of anxiety and the people started asking questions about it," said Qurie.
"French law may make Suha the only person to decide access, but Arafat is not just a husband and father -- he is the ... father of a nation. The people have a right to know and the next in line has the right to be there in order to know and address our public," Palestinian lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi told CNN.
"So Suha's comments were very unfortunate, very divisive, contentious, and they backfired ... in the middle of our collective attempt to have a united front, a rule of law" in a precarious post-Arafat transition, she said.
