December 23, 2004 -- Yasser Arafat was a secret investor in the city's hottest upscale bowling alley, according to a bombshell new report.
The Palestinian leader three years ago pumped $1.3 million into Bowlmor Lanes, the popular Greenwich Village recreation center that has attracted a galaxy of stars, from Cameron Diaz to Rudy Giuliani.
"This is a complete shock to us," said Bowlmor founder Thomas Shannon.
The entrepreneur said he had no idea he was pocketing money from Arafat when a holding company that handled some of the Palestinian boss' financial affairs began buying up 2 percent of Bowlmor's parent company in 2001.
Shannon said he became aware of the connection only after Bloomberg Markets magazine revealed it yesterday in an exposé on Arafat's finances.
Bowlmor does not want to have anything to do with the terror-linked leader.
"You can't imagine that something like this will show up on your doorstep," Shannon told The Post. "You feel the way you feel when your apartment has been robbed."
Just this summer, GOP delegates threw two convention bashes at the hipster Greenwich Village hangout. Bowlmor has also hosted Jewish Defense League events and is a popular place for parents to hold children's bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah parties.
Bowlers at the lanes, where pins signed by Giuliani ? a vociferous Arafat critic who once had him removed from Lincoln Center ? Carson Daly and others grace the walls, said the Arafat connection left a taste in their mouth as sour as an old bowling shoe.
"I can't believe it," said Marci Selsberg, of West Orange, N.J. "I don't want to come back. I don't want to be a part of his investments."
Arafat became involved with Bowlmor through a complicated investment scheme designed to get his money working for him outside his impoverished Palestinian territories.
His financial company placed money with a Virginia-based firm called SilverHaze, which set up some Delaware holding companies to invest in U.S. ventures.
One of those companies, Onyx Funds, invested $1.3 million in shares of the private company that owns Bowlmor, Strike Holdings.
Just how did Arafat's money get into a bowling alley, of all things?
It turns out that the SilverHaze executive who created the Onyx Funds, Zeid Masri, is a graduate-school classmate of Bowlmor founder Shannon.
Shannon said yesterday that Masri told him only that the SilverHaze money came from "wealthy European families."
"He never mentioned [Arafat]," Shannon said.
He also said that Arafat received no profits from his investment.
Masri could not be reached for comment. But he told Bloomberg that he believed companies in which Arafat's corporation invested knew were the money was coming from.
"When we invest, people want to know where the money is coming from," he said. "We're 110 percent comfortable about where the money came from."
A spokeswoman for Bowlmor said yesterday their lawyers were working "through the night" to sever the Arafat financial link, and the matter could be wrapped up as early as today.
The Bloomberg report also said that Arafat disclosed he had invested $799 million over the past two years. His money managers invested in venture capital funds, software startups and telecommunications company from Israel to Silicone Valley.
Arafat died in France on Nov. 11 at age 75.
But one bowler who was enjoying an afternoon at the lanes yesterday thinks she knew what he would have said if he ever ventured past the club's velvet rope and saw what was going on there.
"He would say, 'Look at these stupid Americans, giving me money,' " said Samanta Balassa, 27.
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