Suha Arafat criticises PA on Israel TV

Suha Arafat, the widow of former Palestinian Authority (PA), PLO and Fatah President Yasser Arafat, severely criticised the PA on official Israeli TV on Thursday.

In an interview with Kan, Arafat criticised the PA leadership and apologised to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the burning of its flag, in the wake of the announcement of the normalisation deal with Israel.

Arafat wrote on her Instagram profile: “In the name of all the noble Palestinians, I am apologising for the UAE people and leadership for the profanation and burning of their flag in Jerusalem and Palestine and for insulting the symbols of the beloved UAE.”

Arafat confirmed that it was her first time speaking on Israeli TV, but she wanted to send a “clear message” to the PA officials: “If they intended to harm me or any of my family members, I would fight back forcefully.”

The widow of the late Palestinian strongman, who is originally a French citizen and has been living in France since the death of her husband, claimed: “There are directions issued by [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] Abu Mazen to defame me and call me a traitor.”

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“If they attempted to open the gates of hell, I would open the gate of hell too… I have the memoirs of Yasser [Arafat]. He wrote about every one of them. If I published a single piece of information about what Arafat wrote, I would burn them all before their people.”

Regarding Abbas, she conveyed her fondness of him, but claimed that he is being “misled” by the people around him.

“I like him,” she revealed, “but all of them mislead him and are waiting for the time to get rid of him. He is to live more than 100 years. He is to live longer than [late Israeli President] Shimon Peres because he enjoys good health, but his surroundings want to destroy him.”