Arafat invested in bowling alley

NEW YORK – Maybe they should have named it Bowling for Palestine.

Bowlmor Lanes, a fixture in Greenwich Village for decades, was secretly bankrolled in part by the late Yasser Arafat, newly released documents reveal.

Using a holding company, Arafat quietly sank about $1.3 million of Palestinian Authority funds into the hipster hangout in 2002, two years before his death.

The news, first reported in Bloomberg Markets Magazine, hit some Bowlmor patrons like a 15-pound ball taking down the headpin.

“If I had known, I wouldn’t have come, but I promised the kids,” said financier Steve Saslow, 55, with his 4-year-old and 8-year-old in tow.

It apparently also came as a surprise to Bowlmor’s owners, a company called Strike Holdings, which has lanes on Long Island and in Maryland and Florida.

The firm said it was “shocked” to learn Arafat was behind the investment – and planned to return the money and sever any ties to the Palestinians.

“This information was never disclosed to us previously, and had we known the source of these funds, which represents approximately 2 percent of our company’s equity, we never would have accepted them,” spokeswoman Marcia Horowitz said.

“We do not endorse their values, and we do want to be affiliated with them in any way.”

Bowlmor has been around since 1938, but it was sold in 1997 to entrepreneur Tom Shannon.

Shannon happened to attend business school with Arafat’s U.S. investment manager, Zeid Masri, who decided to park some Palestinian Authority cash in Bowlmor.

The $1.3 million, funneled through a company called Onyx Funds, was just a small piece of a $799 million fortune that Arafat invested in companies across the Middle East and the United States.

Masri figured the stake would be a moneymaker, but it looks like a gutter ball for the Palestinian Authority, since Strike has not paid any dividends on the investment.

With its disco atmosphere, $9 games and prime location, Bowlmor has become the top-grossing alley in the city – a popular spot for office parties and young singletons.

Its Web site also advertises it as a hot spot for bar mitzvahs, complete with a kosher caterer and a special room for candlelighting ceremonies.

Sam Rubin, 30, an Israeli-born NYU student walking into Bowlmor on Wednesday, said the Arafat link would not stop him from tossing a couple of games.

“I’m glad Arafat’s dead, but I like to separate … politics and bowling,” he said.