The last word.

Jaweed Al Ghussein, former Palestine Authority (PA) treasurer who died on 1 July 2008, aged 77, added some interesting and rather remarkable footnotes to history, helping orchestrate developments that changed both perceived wisdom and the course of events in the Middle East region.

Seven years ago, in 2001, Al Gussein was the focus of secret diplomacy involving covert security manoeuvres by the British, Jordanian, Israeli, American and Belgian secret services. It culminated in persuading a number of Palestinian security personnel, disillusioned by the increasingly autocratic ways of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, to secure Al Ghussein's escape to Israel in a speeding convoy of heavily guarded European diplomatic vehicles.

Al Ghussein had some months earlier, in April 2001, been kidnapped by PLO henchmen from a wedding reception in Abu Dhabi, bundled into Arafat's private jet and flown to Gaza.

Pressure from the Middle East Peace Quartet (UN, EU, Russia and USA) forced Arafat to move Al Ghussein to Cairo for cancer treatment in November 2001. Three months later, Arafat's men snatched him back from the Red Crescent hospital in Cairo and returned him to Gaza.

A high profile campaign by his daughter, the London-based socialite Mona Bauwens, led to his eventual release. Ms Bauwens persuaded Palestinian doctors to defy Arafat and hand over her father's medical reports, whilst emotionally shaming the late Palestinian leader by addressing him as "Amu Yasser" (the way a child addresses an uncle in Arabic).

Her form of address was hardly inappropriate, her father and Arafat had been friends for half a century but fell out over the latter's lack of transparency about donations received from dubious sources.

Al Ghussein was disgusted by Chairman Arafat's support of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait--they had received unlimited Kuwaiti support when setting up the Fatah movement together during the 1960s.

Arafat's alliance with Saddam became a bone of contention in 1983 during a visit to Baghdad when Al Ghussein criticised Saddam's aggression against Iran, prompting a row with Arafat who had received two separate donations of $50m each from Saddam, without informing Al Ghussein, who had been the chairman of the Palestinian National Fund (PNF).

"Billions of dollars of Arab donations never appearing on the records of PNF," in Al Ghussein's own words, were the last straw that led him to resign in 1996.

Born in Gaza in 1930, Jaweed was the son of Yacoub Al Ghussein, a wealthy land owner and president of the Palestine National Party, who was exiled by the British to the Seychelles for leading a civil uprising against the mandate authority.

Young Jaweed attended the Friends School in Ramallah before the family became refugees in Egypt as a result of the 1948 war. He read economics at the American University in Cairo where he met Yasser Arafat in the Palestinian students union.

A gentleman of the old school, Al Ghussein belonged to a vanishing generation of leaders.

He was a civil servant in Kuwait where he moved after graduation and married Khalida Nusibeh, from a prominent old Jerusalem family in 1955. He left for Abu Dhabi in 1961 setting up Cordoba, a successful construction business. Within a few years he had made enough money to start helping the Fatah movement. "It was essential to have financial security before joining the struggle," he once told me.

Al Ghussein was elected by the Palestinian National Council to head the PNF in 1984, guaranteeing him a seat on the PLO Executive Committee. He used his influence to finance several projects to help familles of 'martyrs', and to educate refugees as well as funding Palestinian media.

He was uncomfortable with violence and saw armed struggle as a temporary means to an end, insisting it should never harm civilians. He preferred peaceful coexistence and solving disputes through dialogue and mutual understanding.

In 1987, enjoying afternoon tea in his Hampstead garden with another gentleman from a similar chapter of history, the late British journalist and writer Claude Morris (1920-2000), came up with the idea of forming the Next Century Foundation for Peace (NCFP), an independent British-based think-tank for the promotion of peace and dialogue among adversaries.

The NCFP hosted dialogues and meetings between Middle East opponents at a time when appearing at the same event with an Israeli journalist, let alone an official, was a taboo for most Arab diplomats. The foundation was met by resistance from some Arabs, but received great support from the late King Hussein of Jordan and the older generation of British diplomats known in the foreign office as 'the camel corps'.

Al Ghussein was a philanthropist and generous benefactor to Palestinian causes and charities. A passionate believer in education, he personally funded the education of many Palestinians and supported projects to ensure they had health care and hope for the future. Until his death, he remained committed to the creation of a Palestinian state through peaceful means.

He died of characinoid syndrome believed to be aggravated by his detention in Gaza.

He is survived by his wife Khalida, son Tawfik and daughter Mona.