My first meeting with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat while Israel’s deputy foreign minister took place in Tunis a month after the signing of the Oslo Accords at the White House in September 1993. Part of the conversation took place in the presence of officials from both sides, and part of it one-on-one. It started at 10:00 p.m. in the evening and continued on into the night.
Among the topics Arafat raised were the payments to families of Palestinian casualties from the conflict with Israel and Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Arafat said that the PLO would have to continue to depend on donations for them, because it was clear to him that the World Bank would not be able, as a matter of principle, to fund such payments.