Inside Yasser Arafat’s wrecked headquarters is the man near the top of Israel’s most-wanted list: a pudgy, 62-year-old accountant.
He is Fuad Shubaki, chief financial officer of the Palestinian Authority.
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A longtime colleague of Arafat’s and one of the Palestinian Authority president’s most trusted aides, Shubaki knows who has paid how much to whom and when and for what.
He has had a hand in procuring weapons for the Palestinians for years, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources. Israelis consider him the crucial building block in what they hope will become the definitive case to discredit Arafat.
As Israel’s monthlong siege of Arafat’s Ramallah compound comes to an end, it is the fate of Shubaki, a high school graduate with a near-photographic memory for numbers, that is most problematic, according to diplomats and officials.
Shubaki has been holed up inside the compound with Arafat, other aides, guards and the now-convicted killers of an Israeli Cabinet minister. Shubaki and the killers are destined for a dusty prison in Jericho under terms of a U.S.-brokered agreement, while Israel continues to demand the extradition of all six men.
It is Shubaki whom Israeli officials are most keen to question–and whom Arafat is most reluctant to give up.
“It’s just like `The Untouchables,”‘ one U.S. official said. “How did they go after Capone? They went after the bookkeeper. … In the Palestinian world, Shubaki is that bookkeeper.”
Israeli intelligence officials believe that Shubaki has controlled millions, if not billions, of dollars over the years–money that was used to equip Palestinian militias before the founding of the Palestinian Authority, and security services afterward.
More intriguing, he might have intimate knowledge of Arafat’s private and well-stocked bank accounts, intelligence officials say.
They hope Shubaki can provide proof that Arafat financed terrorism. They say he might be able to supply information on payments to militant groups such as the Fatah-affiliated Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which has carried out numerous attacks on Israelis; the structure and membership of militant groups; details of arms deals; and Iranian involvement in the region.
Israeli and Palestinian sources agree that Shubaki could do little without Arafat’s permission. Through a lawyer, he has denied wrongdoing.
Shubaki’s formal job since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994 has been to pay the salaries and buy equipment–from guns to boots–for the three most powerful of the Palestinians’ many security branches: the Preventive Security Service, the General Intelligence Service and the Force 17 presidential guard.
Palestinian sources said Shubaki also controls the purse strings of Fatah. He also is a partner in several businesses, including a yogurt company in the Gaza Strip, that represent investments of Fatah money, associates said.
“He’s Arafat’s pocket,” said his lawyer and friend, Hussein Shyoukhi.