Head of the National Democratic Forum, Nasser Al-Qudwa, realesed a statement accusing Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas of destroying the Arafat Foundation, Resalah newspaper reported yesterday.
Al-Qudwa, the nephew of the late PA and Fatah President Yasser Arafat, said: “The anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death comes this year with much sadness and grief generally due to the bad situation in Palestine and especially due to the destruction of Arafat Foundation by Abbas.”
Al-Qudwa was dismissed from Fatah and its Central Committee in March following his refusal to give up heading an electoral list for parliamentary elections representing Fatah which was not approved by Abbas.
“On this occasion, we recall the persistence of the PA leadership on destroying the Arafat Foundation through dismissing its board of trustees, cancelling its independence, cancelling its charter and ridding it of most of the Arab and Palestinian honorary members,” Al Qudwa said.
He accused Abbas of using the PA security services to take over the foundation and its branches inside and outside Palestine.
“The Arafat Foundation was built by the hands of the members of its committees, councils and employees from scratch,” he said, “and what remains today is only a stupid placard placed in Ramallah.”
Al-Qudwa is the second senior Fatah official to be sacked after Mohammed Dahlan over differences with Abbas.
On 11 November 2004, Yasser Arafat, founder and leader of Fatah, was declared dead in a French hospital following reports that he had been poisoned.
Independent investigations found he was poisoned, but the PA and Fatah leadership under Abbas has yet to announce the findings of their own investigations.