While the office doors of prime ministers were opened to him, while he walked around Camp David with Mohammed Rashid and took part in peace negotiations, Yossi Ginosar was involved in managing the PA’s funds in Switzerland for Rashid, reaping large commissions and repaying Rashid through straw companies that he established.

Around USD 300 million of the Palestinian people’s money was transferred from a Swiss bank account belonging to Yasser Arafat and Mohammed Rashid to unknown destinations during the first year of the Intifada. The account, at the Swiss bank Lombard Odier, was managed by Israelis and Ozrad Lev.

Senior Israeli security sources believe that an international investigation is needed to determine where the money went and what it was used for. Israeli intelligence figures are concerned about possible misuse of the funds.

The same sources expressed amazement and disappointment that Ginosar, a former GSS branch commander and the special envoy of Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Ehud Barak to the Palestinian Authority, did not provide security authorities with information about the withdrawal of the Palestinian funds when the withdrawals were performed, during the Intifada.

A long list of grave acts is revealed here at the initiative of Ozrad Lev, Ginosar’s partner who decided to convey the information to Ma’ariv. “I could not go on living with the feeling that I was a partner, even if only in a completely passive fashion, in illegal or unethical acts, including the payment of bribes under the table, conflict of interests, and problematic behavior,” says Lev. “I am not only talking about people, but also about national and governmental behavior. It became clear to me that the peace process corrupts no less than the occupation. In the end this story must come out, into daylight. It cannot be hidden forever. I prefer, in a situation like this one, to cooperate and tell the truth, the whole truth, in order to avoid a situation in which my children, who are more precious to me than anything, will read incorrect things in the newspaper.”

Ozrad Lev, a 42-year-old businessman who was responsible for opening the bank accounts for the Palestinians in Switzerland and who served as their investment strategist, as Mohammed Rashid’s economic adviser and as Yossi Ginosar’s partner, revealed all of the details behind hundreds of millions of dollars in PA funds which were managed by Mohammed Rashid, Yossi Ginosar, and himself over the past few years. All of the deals, all of the money laundering, all of the payments, all of the straw companies, all of the money transfers, the commissions and the financial behavior of Rashid and Ginosar.

Ma’ariv presents a rare look inside the private safe of Rashid, Arafat, Ginosar and other officials. The “Israeli connection” behind the Palestinian money. The vast profits. The personal gains. The problematic involvement of the Swiss banks. The unscrupulous behavior of businessman Yossi Ginosar, the personal envoy between (at least) three Israel prime ministers and Yasser Arafat.

The first to use Ginosar’s mediating services was the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. Shimon Peres did the same. Binyamin Netanyahu occasionally consulted with Ginosar, but lowered the profile of his diplomatic missions and preferred his own confidant, Attorney Yitzhak Molcho. When Ehud Barak was elected Ginosar was brought back into the center of things and he was made Barak’s special envoy to Arafat. The situation changed during Ariel Sharon’s term as prime minister. “The only one who saw that there was a problem, that something was not right here, and stopped Ginosar’s activities or at least limited them, was Sharon,” says Ozrad Lev. “As far as I know, the prime minister’s son Omri also understood the story in time and put an end to it.”

Ginosar sat at Camp David next to Ehud Barak, pressured various prime ministers to accept Palestinian requests, saw secret material (in Israel and in Ramallah) on a regular basis, while at the same time managing Mohammed Rashid’s funds, using them as his own, establishing countless offshore companies, taking in vast profits, secretly paying Mohammed Rashid set percentages and commissions from gas and cement deals in Israel (but not before receiving his own cut) and being involved in deals connected with the Jericho casino. The whole time he did not give Israeli authorities-despite repeated demands,the details of this blatant and impossible conflict of interests.

Even more grave: Ginosar worked to establish a network of straw companies for Rashid through which Rashid secretly received his part of the commissions for the management of funds designated “the money of the Palestinian people.” “I will not let him touch you,” Mohammed Rashid once told Ozrad Lev, when Lev complained that Ginosar was trying to distance him from their joint dealings. “I made him a very rich man, I made at least $10 million for him.”

Ozrad Lev served in IDF intelligence, served as aide to Amos Gilad, the office director of the commander of military intelligence, who was Ehud Barak at that time, was the adjutant for two chiefs of staff (Moshe Levy and Dan Shomron), received a prize for “creative thinking” from the commander of IDF Intelligence along with a team of research and intelligence personnel, and then became a successful businessman. […]

For about three years Lev served as financial adviser to Mohammed Rashid and the PA. He succeeded in convincing one of the most prestigious and well-respected Swiss banks, the Geneva-based Lombard Odier, to open an investment portfolio for the PA. The bank manages around 130 billion Swiss franks for various clients. Lev served as the “bridging adviser” for the Palestinian money, the coordinator and mediator between the bank and Rashid.

The funds involved total more than USD 300 million transferred by Rashid and Arafat to the bank from a PA account in Ramallah’s Arab Bank, but their final destination is not known: in 2001, at the height of the Intifada, Rashid transferred the money from the Swiss bank to an unknown destination.

Where were the USD 300 million, the “money of the Palestinian people,” transferred to at the height of the Intifada? The Americans, the Europeans, international financial institutions, the World Bank and the Palestinians themselves their new finance minister, Salam Fayed-are looking for the money and have even employed accountants and private investigators for this purpose. IDF intelligence and the GSS have been trying to investigate the matter for some time.

Lev is disturbed: Where was the money transferred to and what was it used for? “I know for a fact that the money did not come back to where it came from. Despite the fact that from that moment I have not been responsible for these funds, I think that we must investigate and clarify where the money went. In the documents of the company and the account that we established for Rashid and Arafat it is clearly written that this is the ‘money of the Palestinian people.’ This people has a right to know where its money went.” […]

The name of the offshore company that managed the Palestinian account at the Swiss bank was Ledbury, established in April of 1997. Later Ginosar became concerned that “too many people know that name,” and changed it to Crouper. Lev’s job was to convince the respected Swiss bank, one of the biggest in the Swiss banking system, to accept the Palestinian funds, for the first time, in an exceptional, irregular decision. This on the condition that the money return to the Arab Bank.

In the years before this, there had been several banking scandals in Switzerland (funds belonging to Zaire dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and to Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos were discovered in Swiss banks, sparking widespread criticism) and it was very difficult to convince respected financial institutions to take large sums of money from an ephemeral body like the Palestinian Authority, which is not a country and does not have an organized and transparent financial system.

The bank’s representative in the negotiations with Lev was Richard de Charner, one of the bank’s seven partner-managers, considered a very well-respected banker in Switzerland. At first de Charner treated the Palestinian money and its sources with suspicion. Then he was satisfied. A “letter of limitations” drafted by Lev, which put serious limits on the Ledbury account, convinced the Swiss bankers to accept the Palestinian money and manage it for almost three years.

The Palestinians, and most of all Rashid, could not hide their surprise and joy when they heard that such a well-respected Swiss bank had agreed to invest their money. The Swiss, for their part, could not hide their amazement when they received the aforementioned letter signed by Mohammed Rashid, on stationery from the Palestinian presidential office.

Their amazement grew when they saw that the documents connected with the account and the Ledbury company included, of course, Yasser Arafat’s signature and a photocopy of his passport photo (Palestinian passport number one). Despite everything, the Swiss bankers acquiesced and opened the Palestinian account. It remained open until Rashid withdrew the money in several withdrawals not long after the beginning of the Intifada.

Where is this money today? Only Rashid knows, and maybe Arafat as well.

Ma’ariv has also learned that three other European financial institutions were involved in managing the Palestinian funds. One was Soditique, a Swiss investment house owned by a Jewish family. When one of the owners, who is also a leader of the Jewish community in Switzerland, discovered the source of the money, he ordered that the money be returned to the Palestinians and their account closed. “I want no dealings with them,” he said. Another was Atlas, a British investment firm, which managed tens of millions of dollars in Palestinian investments. The third was the Samuha family, a Jewish family which deals in investments in Geneva, and which for a time held a portion of the Palestinian investments in Switzerland.

The role of the Samuha family is larger and more interesting than that of the others. The family’s patriarch, Richard Samuha, together with his son Tony, serves as the driving force behind a large network of straw companies which belong to Mohammed Rashid and Yossi Ginosar. Samuha is the man who establishes the companies, registers them, closes them and establishes new ones, in an endless circle.

Ma’ariv has learned that Ginosar was a partner in a foreign company called Brichrobe. Another partner in the same company was Prof. Steve Cohen. Through the company, the two receive regular commission from deals between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Brichrobe then transfers set percentages to the various companies belonging to Mohammed Rashid. This whole complex system is run by Richard Samuha from Geneva. Later, as part of a circular deal for tax purposes, Ginosar and Cohen sold their holdings in the company and instead established a complex and completely secret system of alternative companies.

Ginosar’s response: “The country used my connections, not the other way around.”

Ma’ariv (p. 2) by Yossi Ginosar — My activities in the service of the country, of its leaders and institutions, during my time in the GSS, as the prime minister’s coordinator of POW affairs, and afterwards, were all carried out in unwavering loyalty to the country, to the mission and to those who entrusted me with it. Evidence of this can be found in the thanks and appreciation that I have received from national and security leaders over the years.

Throughout the period of my activities for the country with the Palestinian Authority and other Arab bodies in the region, I acted because the country approached me and made use of my special connections with the Palestinians as a private citizen. I did this voluntarily, covering the expenses with my personal account, and made a substantial contribution, not only during the peace process, but also to the security of Israel’s citizens in a direct fashion, sometimes without question saving human life.

The attempt to hint at something else, to cast doubt on this service, is baseless and wicked.

In this issue, the country made use of me and my connections, and not the other way around. I never asked for credit or payment, and I would not mention this were it not for the malicious insinuations directed at me by the journalist before the article’s publication. All of my activities as a businessman were carried out according to the law, along with notification, also required by law, of the relevant authorities.

The questions sent to me by the journalist before the article’s publication relate to my personal business dealings. Some of them are inaccurate and some are incorrect.

Throughout the years, the State of Israel and Israeli businessmen have made efforts to have economic contacts with any possible Arab partner. The wording of the questions raises concern that this is an attempt to use the tragic situation that now exists between us and the Palestinians in order to throw dirt on business activities which were normal and accepted at one time.

The general impression from the wording of the questions is that I held an official state position working with the Palestinian Authority while at the same time I worked to advance my own personal business interests. Presenting things in this fashion has no connection with reality, because the situation was completely different.

As a private citizen with special business connections with Palestinian and other Arab partners, I was approached by the country’s leaders because of those connections and asked to use them to advance the cause of the country and its security. They did so with complete trust in me, based on their familiarity with me and my service to the country.

Yossi Ginosar: G. from the GSS

Ma’ariv (p. 5) by Ma’ariv staff — Yossi Ginosar, 56, immigrated to Israel from Lithuania at the age of 12. He carried out his military service in the Military Adjutancy, and after his release studied economics and philosophy at the Hebrew University. During his studies he joined the GSS.

In his 19 years at the GSS, he filled a series of field and staff positions, and specialized in the area of combating terror. Among the senior positions he filled: director of the Northern District, director of the North American department in the security department, and head of the staff division.

During his years of service, his name was linked to two affairs that rocked the country. In 1984, Ginosar was appointed as a member of the committee of inquiry that investigated the events surrounding the hijacking of the number 300 bus. His role in the committee was to obscure the part of the GSS operatives in killing two of the hijackers, who were caught alive. Two years later, Ginosar’s deeds were revealed by three other senior GSS officials. A committee that investigated the issue referred to Ginosar as a “Trojan horse” on behalf of the GSS in the committee. At the end of 1986, Ginosar, who had been called G. throughout the progression of the affair, was forced to quit the GSS.

Upon the publication of his name and picture, the second affair exploded. Izat Nafsu, an IDF officer who had been imprisoned seven years previously for treason and espionage, fingered Ginosar as his interrogator and petitioned the High Court of Justice. Nafsu argued that Ginosar had extracted a confession from him through lies and torture. The appeal was upheld and Nafsu was released, despite having been convicted.

Ginosar is married for the second time and father of four, and lives in Kochav Yair. His late son Shahar was run over and killed by a Palestinian driver in the Gaza Strip in 1991.

This article ran in Maariv on December 5, 2002

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is breaking new ground in the legal fight against terrorism with lawsuits filed on behalf of Israeli and U.S. victims.

Can Palestinians sue the state of Israel?” Such a question is not often posed to Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, a 29-year-old, high-powered legal crusader for Israeli and U.S. victims of Palestinian terrorism. Without so much as a pause, the petite Israeli advocate told the assembled law students at the University of Toronto this month that Palestinians can sue the state of Israel and some do. She added when Israel has mistakenly injured or killed innocent Palestinians in its war against terrorism, it “takes responsibility and pays.”

Darshan-Leitner is now trying to make the Palestinian Authority do the same and cut off the money she believes it uses to fund terrorism.

A pioneer in this legal war against terrorism who would be as comfortable posing for Glamour magazine as she is using the courts to stop terrorism, Darshan-Leitner gave the future lawyers a small dose of the drive and determination that has helped to shake up Israel’s legal establishment and break new ground in international law.

Her latest legal triumph came recently when the international legal team she works with won a landmark decision in Rhode Island. For the first time in the United States, a federal district court declared the Palestinian Authority cannot claim sovereign immunity under the U.S. Antiterrorism Act of 1991. A US $250-million lawsuit against the PA by the U.S. family of Yaron and Efrat Ungar, who Darshan-Leitner says was killed in a Palestinian-sponsored terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas, can proceed.

Darshan-Leitner has three objectives in what seems to be her own war against terrorism: Win compensation for terror’s casualties, bankrupt terrorist organizations in the process and expose what she describes as the European Union’s reckless US$10-million monthly payment to the PA, which she says helps fund terrorism.

“Sixty years after the Holocaust,” she alleges, “Europe has once again the blood of Jews on its hands.”

Darshan-Leitner’s pique at the EU was palpable as she explained the heart-wrenching case of Steven Bloomberg, a British citizen and physicist who lost his wife, Techiya, a mother of five and five-months pregnant, in a terrorist attack carried out, Darshan-Leitner said, by Palestinian policemen in August, 2001, in the West Bank settlement of Ginot Shomron.

Bloomberg and one of his daughters sustained severe spinal injuries in the attack and must now use wheelchairs. Darshan-Leitner has brought a US$20-million suit against the EU in an Israeli court and is arguing the salaries of the PA policemen involved were paid by the EU, the police car they were driving was bought with EU money and “the bullets that were shot into the [Bloomberg] car were purchased with the EU’s money.”

Darshan-Leitner believes the EU knows or should have known this and that the US$1.5-billion it has donated to the PA since 1994 has paid for terror attacks on Israel.

The Bloomberg case has been bolstered by evidence uncovered this year in Operation Defensive Shield by the Israeli army, which found what Israel says is very strong evidence showing Yasser Arafat and his government were using EU money to support terrorism.

In the past, the European Union has claimed there is no proof its funding has gone to support terror but in response to Bloom-berg’s case, EU representatives refuse to defend that stand in court, claiming diplomatic immunity. This response has only strengthened Darshan-Leitner’s resolve. She says the EU should “go to court if it has nothing to hide; it should go to court if it knows how its money is being spent and show us its hands are clean.”

Among her many cases, Darshan-Leitner is representing the family of Vadim Nordizh, one of two Israeli military reservists who were beaten to death in a Ramallah police station in October, 2000, after they lost their way trying to reach their unit.

Those involved in the killing of the two reservists have been arrested by the Israelis and Darshan-Leitner wants compensation for Nordizh’s family. It should come, she thinks, from the near US$400-million Israel has collected on behalf of the PA in the form of various taxes and which Israel stopped paying over to the PA when the intifada began in the fall of 2000.

Recently, Darshan-Leitner won another landmark decision, this time in an Israeli court, which granted a pre-emptive lien on Palestinian assets. This ensures that if the PA is found to share responsibility in the death of Nordizh, there will be PA assets available as compensation.

In an interview, Darshan-Leitner, stylishly dressed in a well-cut black suit, explained in greater detail the legal inspiration behind her use of the courts to try to root out terrorism. It comes from Morris Dee and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Dee, a white lawyer from Alabama, founded the centre in 1967 and has used it to go after the wallets of racists. He eventually won the largest judgment awarded against a hate group, a US$37.9-million award, after successfully suing the Christian Knights of Ku Klux Klan for conspiracy to burn a black church.

This example, Darshan-Leitner said, showed how the courts could be used to preserve human rights.

Besides cases involving victims of terrorism, the lawyer, who operates out of her office in the Israeli city of Modi’in, has also represented clients in politically explosive cases. Her first case involved an Israeli belly dancer who accused the Egyptian ambassador to Israel of sexual assault. The case was dismissed when the ambassador allegedly claimed diplomatic immunity. She also represented Samuel Sheinbein, who fled to Israel after he murdered an acquaintance in Maryland. The U.S. government wanted Sheinbein extradited to face justice in Maryland, but Darshan-Leitner successfully argued against his extradition, although an Israeli court did find him guilty of the murder. That case prompted changes in Israeli laws allowing for the extradition of criminals.

These changes led to the extradition of Daniel Weiz to Canada from Israel in October, 2000. Weiz is charged along with two teens with second-degree murder in the 1999 beating death of Dmitri (Matti) Baranovski by a group of masked youths who approached him and his friends for cigarettes and money.

Darshan-Leitner fought for nearly a year to prevent the extradition of Weiz, who was in Canada visiting his father at the time of the murder and returned to Israel where he lived.

Darshan-Leitner condemned Canadian officials during the Israeli court proceedings that led to Weiz’s extradition, saying police in Toronto withheld information. While she does not condemn the Canadian justice system, she stood by her client’s claim of innocence and told the Post, “if he receives a fair trial in Canada, [Weiz] will be found not guilty.”

When she has the time, Darshan-Leitner plays the piano and is enthralled by a particularly fitting sport given her work — boxing.

Before leaving the lecture hall and the law students, the determined lawyer cited a passage from the Torah: “Don’t stand idly by your brothers’ blood.” Darshan-Leitner has taken this to heart, and through the courts in Israel and the United States has launched her own war to stop terrorism against Israel.

The author can be reached at turley-ewart@nationalpost.com .
This piece ran in the National Post in Canada on November 23, 2002

On one of the first nights of Operation Defensive Shield, when Ramallah was under siege and soldiers were searching every house, Mohammed Dahlan phoned Avi Gil, until recently the Foreign Ministry director general, and told him: “Avi, you will never beat us.” Gil was surprised. “Your soldiers are screening blue movies on cable in Ramallah, everyone here is shut up their house, and by the time you leave, there will be a lot more Palestinian babies than dead Palestinians.”

This week too, Dahlan remained cynical. A day after IDF troops raided the Preventive Security Service headquarters in Gaza, which up until April was under his command and is today headed by his associate, Rashid Abu Shabak, and discovered weapons and documents indicating that the Preventive Security Service is plagued with terror, he sits in his temporary office in the Rimal neighborhood and aims his stings in all directions. “What’s funny is that the new defense minister is pleased over the operation in the Gaza headquarters. What is he pleased about, walls and partitions? Computers with nothing on them? Instead of going into the empty rooms of the Preventive Security Service, let him explain the embarrassing incident in Hebron,” Dahlan says.

At age 42, Dahlan has time to sting. The man considered one of the strongest in the Palestinian Authority, with thousands of Arafat time, is a permanent participant in secret talks with most Israeli leaders, sits in the villa of a friend in Gaza which he uses as an office, and puts his free time to good use since he quit his job as national security adviser in October. “Lots of people, when they suddenly quit a high-ranking job, don’t know how to handle the break and the time, and they suffer. I enjoy every moment. I get up when I want, go to sleep when I want. I like it this way,” says Dahlan.

In the next room, one of his aides is on the internet, following the news. When the printer spits out a news item from Ma’ariv, that Mitzna declared that he would evacuate all the settlements in the Gaza Strip if elected prime minister, great joy is felt in the room. “The man we find acceptable in the Labor Party is the man who respects the Palestinian people and he looks at the peace process in the long term and has the courage to say the truth,” says Dahlan. “This is the man closest our hearts and we are willing to do whatever is needed to reach an agreement with him.

Anybody willing to come toward the Palestinians and make an agreement, he is the man we consider the most worthy.”

Dahlan is a polished politician. The more he compliments Mitzna, the more he criticizes Fuad. “There are some people in the Labor Party that are worse than the NRP. Having Mitzna as the leader of the Labor Party will restore hope for peace. It is the responsibility of all the Labor Party members and the responsibility of the citizens of Israel. The citizen who goes to the polling booth must have a decision in his mind: either terror attacks in the heart of Tel Aviv or a peace process. Either vote for the Right and continue with the present situation, or vote Left and put an end to terror attacks.

“Since Rabin’s assassination there has not been a leader as courageous as Mitzna. If he is elected prime minister, there will be a peace agreement within a year. The position of the Palestinian people and of the Palestinian Authority is not to interfere in Israel’s internal affairs. But when are asked to choose with whom to team up, with the settlers and the Likud or with the Labor Party, obviously we know whom to choose.”

Question: So in fact you’re willing to only make peace with the Left?

“The moment there is prime minister in Israel who respects the Palestinian people, we will not hesitate to make efforts to stop terror attacks.”

Question: Now you’re not making efforts?

“We are letting the IDF’s tanks and APCs try. The moment they tire, let them go home. We have no problem with that. They come in in all sorts of helicopters, Apaches and lie to the people.”

Question: What lies are you referring to?

“There are facts on the ground that the government does not say. Their slogan is to restore security. What security? The Israelis will not have security as long as the Palestinian people are humiliated. The solution is to respect us and to give us our rights. This is a fact that the people in Israel, not just the leaders, do not like to hear. You like to hear that Arafat is guilty and that he is the only factor in the disasters in our region. The army said that the general staff reconnaissance unit had again captured Jenin and the refugee camp there. The next day there was a terror attack.”

Question: The terror attacks also hurt the Palestinians.

“Of course we made mistakes. This Intifada is not being run by computer and by a catalogue and we have to learn the lessons. But you have to realize the message of this war. I am not talking about terror attacks in Nahariya or Tel Aviv, which the PA really was opposed to, but which we cannot prevent because the Israeli army took security control of the territories. They seized all the buildings and reoccupied the West Bank. Mabruk. Good for you. But let them not come now and ask me why I am not being responsible.

“The IDF wants to control security on the West Bank, be my guest. But let the army do the work and deliver the goods. The situation of the army and of Sharon is that they want to occupy the West Bank and destroy everything. They present their acts as successful. The next day there is a terror attack and they find no one to blame except for Yasser Arafat. That’s your solution, you blame him, but then what, what happens after that? Sharon and the army lie to you and I offer you a different way. You will give up, you’re not made to control the West Bank, as long as you do not give us our rights.

“There’s a much simpler way, respect us, respect the people who are killed every day waiting at the roadblocks in the West Bank. The moment you kill a baby, a public figure should stand up and apologize. Your leaders only know how to ask us to apologize. That is why I’ve despaired. There will never be peace with the present government, Sharon can dream of such a peace as much as he likes at his farm, but he can forget it. The only solution is you there and we here, and anyone who comes or even thinks about crossing our border, we’ll arrest them or fight them, we’ll handle them. You are being lied to all the time saying that we want to go back to Tel Aviv and Haifa. I tell you, the majority of the Palestinian people do not want that.” [… ]

This appeared in Maariv on November 22, 2002