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Who stole Yasser Arafat’s secret diaries? (Shhhh….)

Maintaining that published excerpts of Arafat’s secret diaries are both “stolen” and false, the Arafat Foundation threatened to sue any party that claimed possession of this content.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

The Yasser Arafat Foundation on Tuesday said it would sue any party that stole or claimed to be in possession of any part of Arafat’s diaries.

The foundation was referring specifically to the Italian L’Espresso magazine, which published on Thursday what it says are “the secret diaries of Arafat.”

“What L’Espresso magazine has published regarding what it called were Yasser Arafat diaries is illegal and violates journalistic ethics,” said Nasser al-Kidwa, head of the Yasser Arafat Foundation.

He tried to discredit the report by saying that the magazine claimed “that a third party had seen these notes, and that the magazine did not see them directly, [which] puts a big question mark on this subject.”

“At the same time, the magazine is well aware that it has received them illegally and without the consent of the stakeholders; in other words, this material is stolen,” he said in a statement.

He claimed that the extracts were false and that there are no copies or parts of Arafat’s notes in the possession of anyone, accept the foundation, which will review them before presenting them to the public “once a political decision regarding this is made.”

The Italian magazine said the 19 volumes of Arafat notes “are a mine of information narrating political agreements, war actions and business operations that until now had remained obscure” and cover the period between 1985 and October 2004.

One of these books is on display at the Yasser Arafat Museum in Ramallah.

Kidwa said, “The Foundation, with the support of the concerned authorities, will take the necessary legal measures to prosecute anyone who stole or claimed possession of any part of these books and to prosecute anyone who tries to distort the symbolism of President Arafat and his struggle to serve suspicious agendas.”

The Italian magazine claimed that Palestinian arch-terrorist Arafat made a secret deal not to attack Italian citizens and accepted bribes from Italy’s leadership.