Suha Arafat
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Suha Arafat (Arabic: سهى عرفات), née Suha Daoud Tawil (سهى داود الطويل) (born 17 July 1963), is the widow of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
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[edit] Early life
Suha was born in the West Bank in 1963 into an affluent Christian family who lived in Nablus and then Ramallah (both cities under Jordanian authority at the time). Suha's father Daoud Tawil, an Oxford-educated[1] banker,[2] was born in Jaffa (now part of Tel-Aviv). Suha's mother, Raymonda Hawa Tawil, born in Acre, was a politically-active Palestinian militant, poet and writer.
Suha attended a convent school, Rosary Sisters' School, in Beit Hanina, Jerusalem and the Sorbonne in Paris. As a student, Suha was a leader in the General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) in France, where she organized demonstrations for the Palestinian cause.
[edit] Marriage to Arafat
Suha, her mother, and her sisters met Arafat for the first time in 1985.[3] When he visited France in 1989, she acted as an interpreter at the meetings with visitors and French government officials. Soon after his departure from Paris, Arafat asked Suha to come and work with him in Tunisia (where the Palestinian Liberation Organization had set up a haven).[4]
Suha married Arafat on July 17, 1990, when she was aged 27 and he was 61. At the time of their marriage, she was a Greek Orthodox Christian.[5] Their only child, daughter Zahwa, was born on July 24, 1995 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
In February 2004, French prosecutors began an investigation of why large amounts of money were being transferred into her bank account. Israel suspected money had been diverted to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.[6]
[edit] November 1999 speech and embrace of Hillary Clinton
In November 1999, at a function inaugurating a new American-funded health initiative in the West Bank, Suha launched into a tirade against Israel, making unsubstantiated claims (in Arabic) that the Israeli government was responsible for cancer rates in Palestinian areas. Then-U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was present at the ceremony and was sitting feet away from Arafat on the dais when the remarks were made. Unsure of how to handle the Palestinian first lady's unexpected outburst, Clinton accepted a hug from Suha and kissed her on the cheek. A senior Palestinian official later apologized to Washington for the embarrassment caused to Clinton and noted that Suha's claims could not be verified.[citation needed] Clinton herself later explained that she was not fully aware of the nature of the speech and that the English translation was difficult to follow.
[edit] Arafat's death and afterwards
As Arafat was dying in Paris in 2004, she accompanied him in his hospital room and was instructed to talk to him in an attempt to bring him out of his coma. He died November 11, 2004.
[edit] Current Lifestyle
Suha Arafat is currently living in Malta.
[edit] References
- ^ "Stifling of Suha", Telegraph / The Age, November 14, 2004
- ^ "Fight Over Icon Has Plenty of Precedent", Washington Post Foreign Service, November 9, 2004
- ^ [ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2848225.ece "Arafat’s widow: I live on just £5,000 a month"]
- ^ "Fight Over Icon Has Plenty of Precedent", Washington Post Foreign Service, November 9, 2004
- ^ "Fight Over Icon Has Plenty of Precedent", Washington Post Foreign Service, November 9, 2004
- ^ "Why was Euro 1 million a month sent to Arafat's wife?", The Guardian
