Charity cash for Palestinian poor was siphoned to suicide bombers

Millions of pounds donated by British and other European charities to help the Palestinian poor were unwittingly diverted to fund terror and support the families of suicide bombers, Israeli prosecutors claimed yesterday.

Ahmed Salatna, 43, a Hamas activist from the West Bank town of Jenin, was remanded in custody by a military court charged with distributing €9m (£6.2m) for such purposes over the past nine years. The recipients are alleged to have included the family of a young man who blew himself up at the Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem in August 2001, killing 15 people and wounding 107. Hamas and Islamic Jihad acknowledged responsibility.

The charge sheet names two British charities, Human Appeal International and Interpal. Human Appeal is a broadly based fundraising organisation, currently helping victims of the Pakistani earthquake. Interpal describes itself as "a non-political, non-profit-making charity that focuses solely on the provision of relief and development aid to the poor and needy of Palestine". No one was available for comment at its London office yesterday. Other charities mentioned were the French CBST, the Italian ABSPT and the Al-Aqsa Foundation, which operates in Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden.

Mr Salatna, who has directed an Islamic charity in Jenin since Israel released him in 1996 after serving three years for Hamas activity, was arrested in September. Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said Mr Salatna directly transferred the European funds to Hamas cells, suicide bombers and their families.

...more... http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article329732.ece

<snip>
Investigators were unable, at this stage, to link specific donations to specific attacks or other activities, the spokesman said. They were considering whether to seek the co-operation of Interpol and the British police.<unsnip>

The timing seems quite odd on this as well, as it is happening during the Palestinian elections, in which there are strong Israeli fears that Hamas will win a lot of seats. I hope this isn't just an attempt to discredit any particular candidate, because that would be likely to backfire, imho.

and asbestos cases and tobacco cases.

You hit on the excerpt

That's the standard defense in "money laundering" prosecutions, in the tobacco cases and asbestos (can't link this particular plaintiff's cancer to exposure or this particular brand of cigarettes - "just epidemiological").

2.) The article does say that it was the investigators who said they were unable to find any specific links; and,
3.) The article does not say anything about what the defense says about the case.

is the type used in drug money laundering case defenses and tobacco and asbestos case defenses.

I can't understand what drug laundering or asbestos or tobacco cases have to do with the subject at hand. In fact, I'm quite sure that they have very little to do with the subject at hand.

By interjecting these issues into the discussion, even though they have little to do with the subject at hand, the casual reader (presuming there are any casual readers of the I/P forum, that is, LOL), will be very confused by the linking of the two, and will conclude, erroneously, that the Hamas case has something to do with drug laundering.

I'm sure that nobody wishes to confuse any issue for those casual readers who might venture here. Consequently, I'm sure that to avoid confusion, there will immediately be posted a clarification stating that the Hamas case has nothing to do with drug laundering, etc.

But just in case that doesn't happen, let me restate it here:

The Hamas charity arrests and allegations have nothing to do with drug money laundering.

You posted

You are positing tyhat the case is defective because

Specific donations ---> specific attacks
Specific cigarettes---> specific cases of cancer
Specific asbestos fibers----> specific cases of cancer



which you are alleging as a defect.

Money is fungible and interchangeable. The greenbacks go into an organization -- fungible greenback go out to, e.g., terrorists. To assert that specific dollar bills or checks must be linked to --- specific terrorist acts as you seem to be doing -- is either naive or illogical.

or if Israel is manufacturing a link that in reality has more to do with monies given by these charities to all poor Palestinian people in the occupied territories, including those with alleged "ties to terror." (Or is the term "freedom fighting"? ...oh, no, I forgot, "freedom fighting" is a term reserved only for revered Israeli terrorists, such as Begin.) Will you also condemn the American monetary support that went to the Zionists at the time of independence? Was it equally as offensive and antisocial? No? I didn't think so.

Further, you are presuming that the allegations are true or valid. I'm not so certain.

One of the scariest things about the Patriot Act:

1) One does not have to KNOWINGLY support terrorists to be considered a supporter of terrorism.

2) Anybody who supports terrorism is automatically assumed to have renounced their U.S. citizenship.

Had these been donations made by Americans, they could be without citizenship.

Who knew?

it wouldnt be the first time that money meant for one thing that it was diverted for something completely different.

Somebody made things up or exaggerated a situation for propaganda purposes, either. This story is rather short on facts and rather long in innuendo.

Money changes hands all the time. If I collect some money for charity and give it to someone else who gives it to someone else who gives it to someone else, and so on, at what point do I get off the hook if one of those guys decides to give taxi fare to a bomber? That seems to be what is at issue here; at least I would have expected the cops would have been more specific about the accusations if they could, but instead we get this nebulous stuff.