Issam Abu Issa

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Issam Abu Issa is a Qatar-based Palestinian businessman. He founded a bank which was confiscated by Yasser Arafat in 1999. He subsequently became a severe critic of the Palestinian authority, and was heavily touted by leading American neoconservatives as a potential Palestinian opposition leader.

Background

Issa comes from a Palestinian family, originally from Haifa, which settled in exile in Qatar.[1]The family created a conglomerate named Salam International which is active in the construction, engineering, real estate and banking fields. A system of cross-holdings links IAS International and Salam.[2]

Palestine International Bank

Issa was the founding chairman of Palestine International Bank launched in Ramallah in 1997, with $20 million in capital from Palestinian and Gulf investors.[3]In December 1999, the Palestinian Authority accused Issa of embezzlement, prompting him to flee to the Qatari diplomatic mission in Gaza.[4]

The Palestinian Authority claims that Abu Issa took out personal loans for that sum, without presenting guarantees and collateral. Abu Issa denies the allegations and accuses the PA of trying to take over the bank, whose stock owners include Qatari ministers and businessman. The fact that shortly after Abu Issa's dismissal, the Palestinian Authority appointed a new board of directors for the bank made up entirely of PA, strengthens Abu Issa's claim, without weakening the suspicions against him.
This move also angered Qatar's government, which feared losing control of the important bank.[5]

Issa was allowed to leave for Qatar after the Qatari government withdrew its ambassador in response ot the detention of his brother.[6]

Neoconservative campaign against Arafat

In February 2003, Issa spoke at a panel discussion organised by the Hudson Institute and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, on the subject: Will Reform Lead to Palestinian Democracy? A press release for the event described him as "the co-founder of Palestinian National Coalition for Democracy and Independence, a newly founded organization that seeks to promote democratic reform in the Palestinian territories."[7]

A June 2003 article on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cited criticisms by Issa alongside those of Frank Gaffney and Yigal Carmon.

"He's not independent from the current regime, and he can't be," Issam Abu Issa told WORLD. "We need a total transformation, not a continuation of the past."[8]

In January 2004, Issa called for international oversight of his dispute with the Palestinian authority:

Yesterday, Mr. Issa took his case to the airwaves, granting an interview to Radio Sawa, the American-funded radio station that reaches Gaza and the West Bank among other portions of the Middle East. He has also made his case to many of the donors to the Palestinian Authority in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, America, the United Kingdom, and Japan.[9]

In February 2004, Issa was refused entry to the United States on arrival at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport and questioned about allegations that he helped to finance Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He claimed the allegations were the result of false information from the Palestinian authority rather than remain in detention pending an immigration hearing.[10]

Issa had been due to testify in hearings on Palestinian Authority corruption held by Congressman Spencer Bacchus. The Hudson Institute's Meyrav Wurmser suggested he was denied entry in an attempt to prevent him giving evidence:

"What happened to Issam Abu Issa is very simple," she says. "Arafat and the Palestinian Authority did not want him to come to the U.S. and testify because they were leery of his connections to neoconservatives here. I think that at the same time we were working with him in Washington, (Palestinian Finance Minister) Salam Fayyad was giving false information about him to someone in the State Department. And the State Department was all too happy to oblige."[11]

In April 2004, Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute wrote of Issa: "It is time to support Middle Eastern democrats rather than fawn over dictators. We should start by standing up for Fathi El-Jahmi, Siamak Pourzand, and Issam Abu Issa.[12]

In November 2004, the New York Sun asked if Issa would consider taking part in a post-Arafat Palestinian government.

"I want the United States on my side before I re-enter politics," he said. "You need a lot of power to change things on the ground and the United States would use their political power to change things. Without their influence I cannot do anything."[13]

Issa heavily criticised Arafat in an article in the September 2004 issue of Middle East Quarterly:

I have problems with Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but Arafat's leadership for too long has used Israel as an excuse for failure to clean our own house.
Arafat's failed leadership is one factor responsible for the evolution of Palestinian extremism and fundamentalism, as well as a culture of death and despair among the Palestinians. While Clinton feted Arafat at the White House as a peace partner, many of us who worked with or lived under Arafat disagreed, seeing him instead as a man exclusively concerned with power, money, and personal gratification. He heads a dictatorial regime staffed by gangsters.[14]

In the subsequent Summer 2005 edition of the magazine, Newt Gingrich wrote that US diplomats should not "be tempted to engage with those who seek to win legitimacy through terrorism. Instead, they should reach out to those who eschew both terrorism and corruption, like the Palestinian banker-turned-democracy activist Issam Abu Issa."[15]

Issa was a speaker at the 2007 Democracy & Security International Conference in Prague.[16]Issa met President George W. Bush at the meeting.[17]In an article for the American Enterprise Institute, Michael Rubin claimed that Bush promised to resolve the issue of Issa's US visa.[18]

Business interests

Issa founded IAS International in 1985.[19]

In November 2004, it was reported that some of Issa's banking interests were based in Anjouan in the Comoros, an offshore centre of questionable legality:

The site of the Union of Anjouan Banks recently appeared on the Internet. It comprises three establishments (Citizen Bank Ltd, Global Bank Ltd and Geneva International Bank) registered in the Anjouan offshore and having contacts in Jerusalam, Doha, London, Hong Kong and the USA. This initiative came from Issam Abu Issa, who in 1985 founded IAS International Holding, a group of companies which took over from the trading company founded in 1952 by the late Abdul Salam Abu Issa in the United Arab Emirates. In addition to Citizen Bank, IAS International Holding also owns Palestine International Bank founded in 1997, a joint venture specialised in exploring for diamond in the Central African Republic, as well as Sunbelt Development Company specialised in real estate in the United States.[20]

IAS International interests in the Central African Republic include a diamond concession and putative free trade zone in Carnot. It was also awarded a an oil concession in 2007, in a joint venture with Chinese defence company Poly Technologies.[21]

Affiliations

References

  1. ↑ Arafat's Swiss Bank Account, by Issam Abu Issa, Middle East Quarterly, Fall 2004.
  2. ↑ IAS International, Africa Energy Intelligence, 2 April 2008.
  3. ↑ New Palestinian bank opens doors, by Khaled Abu Aker, United Press International, 11 May 1997.
  4. ↑ Palestinian police surround Qatari diplomatic mission in Gaza, Agence France Presse, 24 December 1999.
  5. ↑ FEATURES: AN OLIVE BRANCH SPROUTING LEAVES: THE WAY ARAB STATES ARE SOLVING CONFLICTS THEY HAVE WITH EACH OTHER IS CHANGING, by Zvi Bar'el, Ha'aretz, 5 January 2000.
  6. ↑ FEATURES: AN OLIVE BRANCH SPROUTING LEAVES: THE WAY ARAB STATES ARE SOLVING CONFLICTS THEY HAVE WITH EACH OTHER IS CHANGING, by Zvi Bar'el, Ha'aretz, 5 January 2000.
  7. ↑ Hudson Institute Panel Discussion on Palestinian Democracy Feb. 6 in Washington, U.S. Newswire, 5 February 2003.
  8. ↑ Flashtraffic: Mr. Who?, by Joel C. Rosenberg, World Magazine, 7 June 2003.
  9. ↑ Palestinian Banker Fights To Clear Name After Arafat Seizes Bank, by Eli Lake, the New York Sun, 20 June 2004.
  10. ↑ Qatari-Palestinian says quarrel with Arafat behind denied entry to US, Agence France Presse, 18 February 2004.
  11. ↑ Mixed Signals, by Nir Boms and Erick Stakelbeck, National Review Online, 6 April 2004.
  12. ↑ Half-hearted, by Michael Rubin, National Review Online, 26 April 2004.
  13. ↑ Israel will face pressure after Arafat is gone, by Eli Lake, New York Sun, 5 November 2004.
  14. ↑ Arafat's Swiss Bank Account, by Issam Abu Issa, Middle East Quarterly, Fall 2004.
  15. ↑ Defeat of Terror, Not Roadmap Diplomacy, Will Bring Peace, by Newt Gingrich, Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2005.
  16. ↑ Biographies of the Speakers, Democracy & Security International Conference, accessed 21 January 2009.
  17. ↑ FACT SHEET: ADVANCING FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY AROUND THE WORLD, US Fed News, 1 May 2008.
  18. ↑ President Bush's Broken Promises, by Michael Rubin, AEI Online, 7 August 2007.
  19. ↑ Warning against Anjouan banks, The Indian Ocean Newsletter, 17 September 2005.
  20. ↑ Dangers in Anjouan offshore, The Indian Ocean Newsletter, 20 November 2004.
  21. ↑ Gulf and Chinese Investors Join Forces, Africa Energy Intelligence, 7 November 2007.
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