Bowling for Palestine . . . with Arafat
YASSER ARAFAT invested $1.3m (=80975,000) in a company that owns a
string of US bowling alleys popular with Jewish teenagers, according to
newly-released documents.
The late Palestinian leader made the investment in the New York-based
Strike Holdings, through a holding company he created called Onyx
Funds, reported Bloomberg Markets Magazine.
The holding was among $799m in international investments owned by the
Palestinian Investment Fund detailed in the documents.
American investments account for around $40m of the total, including
property in California, and shares in a private equity fund and a
computer software company.
One of the Arafat bowling alleys, Bowlmor, is close to the campus of
New York University in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
The alley advertises itself as an ideal location for bar mitzvahs.
Customers reacted with shock at the news of Mr Arafat's involvement.
"If I had known, I wouldn't have come, but I promised the kids," said
Steve Saslow as he arrived with his two children.
Strike Holdings, which also owns bowling alleys on Long Island and in
Maryland and Florida, said it was unaware that the money had come from
Mr Arafat.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation leader, who died aged 75, was
branded a terrorist by the US and Israel.
The fund also has a $71m joint venture with British Gas, named as the
BG group, to look for natural gas deposits off the Gaza Strip.
Details of the investments were revealed in an analysis of the fund's
activity carried out by the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's.
The investigation was commissioned by international donors to the fund.
(=A9 Daily Telegraph, London)=20
Tom Leonard
in New York
.
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