This blog previously posted a piece by Khaled Abu Toameh concerning PA theft of hundreds of millions in foreign financial aid. Many such cases of corruption were exposed by intelligence official Fahmi Shabaneh, previously designated by Abbas as the Palestinian Authority’s “chief corruption-buster”. Shabaneh was later discredited and sacked when he collected evidence which apparently got too close to incriminating dozens of senior officials, as well as Abbas’ two sons. Shabaneh, as Abu Toameh reported, “is now ‘wanted’ by the Palestinian Authority on charges of ‘collaboration with the Israeli enemy.’”
Khaled Abu Toameh reports for the Jerusalem Post that now president Abbas has appointed a new commission of inquiry regarding corruption in the PA. The question must be asked — Is Abbas’ new anti-corruption panel simply an act of covering his and his sons’ tracks?:
A special commission of inquiry established by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to investigate a series of corruption cases in the PA…
The commission was set up after former PA intelligence official Fahmi Shabaneh… exposed several cases implicating top officials in sexual, financial and administrative corruption…
Shabaneh, a resident of east Jerusalem, said he has little faith in the commission of inquiry, which is headed by Saleh Ra’fat, secretary-general of the Palestinian People’s Party, formerly the Palestinian Communist Party.
The other two members of the commission are Ali Muhana, chairman of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate, and Natsheh, the PA official who was recently appointed as Abbas’s “personal representative.”
All three members of the commission are known for their close ties with Abbas and the PA leadership in the West Bank – a fact that has left many Palestinians to believe that the panel’s main goal is to exonerate all of Abbas’s men of any wrongdoing.
The word “whitewash” comes to mind.