Yasser Abbas (; born 8 February 1962) is a Palestinian-Canadian multi millionaire businessman, and the son of

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

President

Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud Abbas (; born 15 November 1935), also known by the Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Mazen (, ), is a Palestinian politician who has been serving as the second president of Palestine and the President of the Palestinian National Authority, P ...

. His conspicuous wealth has caused controversy in the

Palestinian Territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine ...

Early life

Yasser Mahmoud Reda Abbas is the second of three sons of

and his wife

Amina Amina (or Aminah) is the loose transcription of two different Arabic female given names: * ʾĀmina (Arabic: آمنة, also anglicized as ''Aaminah'' or ''Amna'') meaning "safe one, protected" * ʾAmīna (Arabic: أمينة, also anglicized as ''Am ...

. He was named in honor of Palestinian leader

Yasser Arafat Yasser Arafat (4 or 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), also popularly known by his Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Ammar, was a Palestinian political leader. He was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004, Presid ...

. In 1983, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from

Washington State University Washington State University (WSU, or colloquially Wazzu) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Pullman, Washington, United States. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest Land-grant uni ...

Career

Abbas claims that his wealth comes from his own businesses. However Mohammed Rachid, a former economic advisor to Yasser Arafat, has accused Abbas' father of taking $100 million from the Palestinian government for himself.The Brothers Abbas; Jonathan Schanzer; Foreign Policy; June 5, 2012 In the late 1980s to early 1990s, Abbas lived in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada, where he had a company which was mainly involved in renovating apartment buildings, and was able to obtain Canadian citizenship. Abbas worked for a number of contracting firms from the Persian Gulf from the 1980s until he left to

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

to start his own company in 1997. Abbas is the owner of Falcon Tobacco, the company that controls all American-made cigarette sales in all Palestinian territories. Abbas also is the chairman of the Falcon Holding Group, a Palestinian investment firm that owns Falcon Electric Mechanical Contracting Company (FEMC). However, FEMC's success didn't come without the assistance from the U.S. government: The company had been rewarded a contract for $1.89 million from the U.S. government during the Iraq war to build a sewage system in the town of

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

.Firms run by President Abbas's sons get U.S. contracts; Adam Entous; Reuters; April 22, 2009 As well as his tobacco business, Abbas is the head of an insurance company, a civil engineering firm and a real-estate business, all of which are headquartered in Ramallah, effectively the capital of the

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. Together with his brother, Tariq Abbas, he also owns an advertising agency in the West Bank. In October 2013, a judge dismissed a libel case brought by Abbas against

Jonathan Schanzer Jonathan Schanzer is an American author and senior vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). He oversees the work of the organization's experts and scholars. Early life and education Schanzer graduated fro ...

, a political analyst and vice president of the Washington DC–based

Foundation for Defense of Democracies The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is a Neoconservatism, neoconservative 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) non-profit think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States. It has also been described as a pro-Israel, anti-Iran lobby gr ...

. In June 2012, Schanzer had written an online opinion piece for ''

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

'' magazine, which questioned the legitimacy of the wealth of President Mahmoud Abbas's two sons (Yasser and Tariq). In August 2015, he was reported to be "tied to a corruption scandal" involving the misuse of public funds, and had paid $50,000 to acquire apartments in a luxury complex in Ramallah, for which Bahrain's foreign minister had been asked for $4 million to fund the private complex for Palestinian officials.

Personal life

Abbas has two sons and a daughter from a previous marriage. In 2015, he married a Lebanese

BBC Arabic Television BBC News Arabic (), formerly BBC Arabic Television, is a television news channel broadcast to the Arab world by the BBC. It was launched on 11 March 2008. It is run by the BBC World Service and funded from the British television licence fee. ...

presenter, Malak Jaafar.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbas, Yasser 21st-century Palestinian businesspeople 21st-century Canadian businesspeople Canadian people of Palestinian descent Living people Washington State University alumni 1962 births Children of presidents Children of prime ministers Mahmoud Abbas