Palestinians 'made millions' selling cheap cement

[DC09]

Palestinian businessmen have made millions of pounds supplying cement for Israel's "security barrier" in the full knowledge of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader and one of the wall's most vocal critics.

A damning report by Palestinian legislators, which has been seen by the Telegraph, concludes that Mr Arafat did nothing to stop the deals although he publicly condemned the structure as a "crime against humanity".

The report claims that the cement was sold with the knowledge of senior officials at the Palestinian ministry of national economy, and close advisers to Mr Arafat. It concludes that officials were bribed to issue import licences for the cement to importers and businessmen working for Israelis.

One of the report's three authors, Hassan Khreishe - an independent legislator and long-term critic of Mr Arafat - last night called for the Palestinian cabinet to resign.

"Wealthy Palestinians with connections at the highest levels have been making millions helping Israel build this wall while Arafat and the Palestinian Authority have been urging people to fight against it," said Mr Khreishe, a council member from the West Bank city of Tulkarm.

"Why Arafat did nothing about it, we just don't know. These people are traitors who have brought shame on us, and they should be punished."

An official in Mr Arafat's office said: "We will not comment because this file has been closed and it is now in the hands of the attorney general."

Growing resistance to corruption in the Palestinian Authority is posing the most serious internal challenge to Mr Arafat's leadership. Last week, gunmen staged a number of kidnappings and attacks on security buildings in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

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Hmmm.

[Erikl]

Yes, here in Israel we know about this for quite some time... this is one of the reasons we call it "Araft's wall". The others being:

1. The wall is built solely for the purpose of keeping Palestinian terrorists, controled largely by Arafat's PLO, from killing Israelis. If you look at the statistics, the wall already caused terroritsm against Israelis to drop sharply.

2. If Arafat wanted, he could break the wall in a week - he just has to stop the terrorism.

3. Arafat and the PLO cares little for the Palestinians, all they care for is earning money and killing Jews. Arafat himself is not a Palestinian but an Egyptian, born and raised in Cairo. The fact that he and the PLO takes all the money to fund terrorism, enlarge his bank accounts and spread hatred in Palestinian "education" system, instead of dismantling the refugees camps (in which Israel offered to help in for several times during the 90s), and to fund normal health system and to feed the Palestinian people.

The only reason this wall is built, is to save Israeli lives - both Jewish and Arab (do not forget that the Israeli population is made of 76% Jews, 4% Russians, and 20% Arabs. This means that any fifth Israeli is an Arab. Many Israeli-Arabs died in Palestinian terrorism).

Israel has lost 1000 people in the current Palestinian Intifada, plus 2000 injured. With a population of 6.78 million, this would have been equall to the U.S having 50,000 cusualties, and 100,000 injured!

But for some peculiar reasons, the EU just doesn't get it. We in Israel see this in either ways:

1. The EU doesn't mind Jews being killed (as Israel, being a Jewish state, is identified with Jews). This along with the rising anti-Semitism in recent years in western Europe seem to confirms Israeli public's suspitions - that Europe has largely stayed antisemitic.

OR/AND:

2. That the EU politians are bribed by Arab oil, and being as it is that the Palestinians are Arabs and are represented by Arab League in most international institutions, or/and bribed by the increasingly-large Arab vote in their countries (this is especially true for France, with a population of 10% Arabs, which indeed have a large pressure on French politians).

[Wings of Selkhet]

Ugh. I'm for the wall, but...that really p***es me off. What a hypocrite!

[Talon]

No matter were you go, there will always be capitalists willing to profit from there people's misery.

Erikl, if the Palistinians's did stop the terrorist attacks would Isreali pull out and allow for the setting up of a independent Palistine state?

The EU doesn't mind Jews being killed

Please don't take this the wrong way, but this view is just completely paraniod

[Erikl]

Erikl, if the Palistinians's did stop the terrorist attacks would Isreali pull out and allow for the setting up of a independent Palistine state?

Ofcourse! this has always been the single Israeli condition.

If the Palestinians will stop their terrorism, there will be no need for the IDF to be there.

In 1993 we gave the PLO\PA control over 95% of the Palestinian population, and all they did was to create infrastructure for future terror campaign, which they launched in 2000, after Israel's refusal to let houndreds of thousands of Palestinians become Israeli citizens (which would have destroyed Israel's Jewish identity).

In the year 2000, Israel agreed to give the Palestinians 97% of the disputed territories (the settelments themselves are only on 3% of the disputed territories.... the other small settelments are not legal settlements and the Israeli police is forced to evacuate those small settlements every now and then, when they pop up), including another 3% of Israeli territory to compensate on the 3% that would have been annexed to Israel.

This also included the division of Jerusalem.

Arafat rejected this offer, because he doesn't want a Palestinian state. He wants to kill Israelis, and thats what he has been doing for the last 40 years (the PLO was created in 1964, before the 1967 Six-Days war in which Israel took over Judea, Samaria and Gaza).

He also insisted that Israel will absorb houndreds of thousands of Palestinians, something we abviously didn't agree to (that will destroy Israel).

He also insisted that 100% of the disputed territories will be Judenrein - clean of Jews.

I don't think they will ever get such an offer in the future after what thay did, because no one in Israel trusts them anymore.

BTW, a little known fact is that 80% of Jordanian citizens are Palestinians, and the queen of Jordan is also a Palestinian.

And so Jordan can never be a democracy - as soon as it becomes a democracy, it will become a de-facto Palestinian state.

Even the flags are identical - the only difference is that the Jordanian flag has the non-Palestinian Hashmite royal star. If Jordan will become a republic, this star will come of, and the flag of the Jordan will be identical to that of the Palestinians.

So, although this is not a mainstream Israeli view, one can say that the Palestinians already have a state (and Jordan was 75% of mandatory Palestine), which is occupied by a non-Palestinian royal family.

Jordan's flag:

Palestinian flag:

Please don't take this the wrong way, but this view is just completely paraniod

I know it looks paranoid, but if you look at it from an average Israeli point of view, who always hear EU politicians talk in the same tone as Palestinian leaders, which are using terror against us. One then can only start wonder whats in the minds of these politicians