'Turkey saved Palestinian archive during Arafat era'

HEBRON CITY, Palestine

Turkey has saved the Palestinian archive upon a request from iconic leader Yasser Arafat, a former chief judge said Tuesday.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Sheikh Taissir Tamimi said Jewish billionaire Irving Moskowitz (1928-2016) had frequently visited the Ottoman archive in Turkey to take copies of Palestinian documents.

“This billionaire obtained copies of land registration certificates in the West Bank and he used these certificates to buy the land from their owners, who were forcibly expelled from their territories in the 1948 war,” he said.

Tamimi said he was sent by Arafat to Turkey in 2000 to request the Turkish intervention to stop Moskowitz from copying Palestinian documents.

“Arafat asked me to make copies of the whole Palestinian archive, an action that was funded by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation,” Tamimi said.

In 2019, Turkey submitted a copy of the Ottoman archive on Palestine to the Palestinian Authority, which included around 36,000 pages in 288 registries related to the Palestinian lands during the rule of the Ottoman Empire in Palestine between 1516 and 1917.

The archive is currently under the supervision of the Palestinian Center for Heritage and Islamic Research in the town of Abu Dis in East Jerusalem.

Arafat returned to Palestine in 1994 following decades of struggle against the Israeli occupation from abroad.

During the second Palestinian Intifada, which erupted in 2000 against then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s visit to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the Israeli occupation forces imposed a blockade on Arafat’s residence in the West Bank city of Ramallah. 

On Nov. 11, 2004, Arafat died in France -- under highly suspicious circumstances -- at the age of 75. Until now, doctors have been unable to determine the exact cause of his death.

Palestinians accuse Israel of poisoning Arafat, a claim denied by Tel Aviv.

*Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara