Meir Dagan's Lawfare Programme
"The National Security Council (NSC) appears to be the central node in the Israeli Government's attempts to use deniable civil actions against alleged terrorist financing. According to veteran Haaretz intelligence correspondent Yossi Melman, this strategy was initiated by Meir Dagan when he headed the NSC in the late 1990s, before becoming chief of the Mossad. In a 2007 article, Melman went on to suggest that Israeli intelligence was connected to a lawsuit brought against the Arab Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the Middle East. The law firm which brought the Arab Bank case, Mann Mairone, moved into terrorism litigation around 2001, having previously specialised in taxation and commercial law. In the process, it acquired a roster of researchers and advisors drawn largely from Shin Bet and Israeli military intelligence.
"WikiLeaks cables show that the Arab Bank was a frequent subject of discussions between Israeli NSC officials and US diplomats during the case. At one such meeting with US Treasury officials in 2005, ILC contacts Udi Levi and Uzi Shaya were prominent in defending the litigation, although vague as to the justification for it:
Levi said the bank had stopped all transactions to the territories after it was sued in US court. He cautioned, however, that the bank is 'playing with evidence, cleaning the records, and deleting accounts' to cover its tracks. Shaya said that the GOI had unspecified proof that the Arab Bank is still dealing with Hizballah in Lebanon.
"Levi went on to suggest further litigation:
Levi called INTERPAL and other European groups that channel funds to Hamas 'a problem we do not know how to solve,' but added that lawsuits similar to the ones filed against the Arab Bank might help. He suggested that another option to restrict funding would be to prevent INTERPAL from clearing dollar donations through New York.
"Interpal, a British charity focused on Palestine, had been a source of friction between the Israeli and British governments for several years. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported in 2004 that Foreign Minister Jack Straw had refused a request from his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom to put an end to Interpal's activities. Significantly, Haaretz noted that even if the Israeli intelligence on Interpal were made public, it would not necessarily meet the threshold for banning a UK charity and that 'it is therefore not at all certain that even if the evidence were to be revealed, it would lead to a curbing of Interpal in Britain.'
"Interpal was also targeted in 2007 by a British think tank, the Centre for Social Cohesion, as chronicled in Spinwatch's pamphlet, The Cold War on British Muslims. In their attack, the CSC cited 'allegations made by Israel and the USA,' as well as a 2006 BBC Panorama documentary, which had also relied extensively on evidence provided by current and former Israeli security officials. In 2009, an inquiry by the UK Charity Commission found that there was insufficient evidence to take actions over claims that Interpal beneficiaries were supporting terrorism, because it could not verify 'the provenance or accuracy' of material provided by the Israeli government.
"Udi Levi's comments suggest that such developments are in line with the wider strategy being pursued by the NSC.
Key Questions
"If a firm that has received covert support from the Israeli government is now targeting BDS activists, does this mean that the Israeli government has widened its use of lawfare in a bid to silence its critics? As we have noted, firms like the ILC are prepared to take on the Israeli government over issues like the Bank of China case. Yet that case itself illustrates the extent to which they are nevertheless dependent on a government which is prepared to use and then abandon terror victims for cynical political reasons. The fact that the Israeli Government is prepared to support organisations whose hardline stances are at odds with its own public positions must also create doubts about how sincerely held those positions are. The targeting of the Palestinian Authority in particular, in cases largely dependent on official Israeli sources, is surely inconsistent with any commitment to a genuine peace process."
Showing posts with label Interpal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Interpal. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Mossad & Associates 1
The following investigation into the Israeli lawfare outfit, Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Centre (ILC) by the UK organisation, Spinwatch (spinwatch.org), is a must-read. You may remember Shurat HaDin's characterisation in the Murdoch press here as a 'civil rights' organisation. As Spinwatch's research shows there's a little more to it than that. Given its length, I'm posting it in two parts:
BDS campaigner targeted by law firm with links to Israeli intelligence
by Tom Griffin & David Miller (5/10/13)
"A law firm targeting the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement has close links to Israeli intelligence, US government cables leaked by Wikileaks show:
"Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Centre (ILC) made a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission last month against Jake Lynch, the director of the Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies at Sydney University, over Lynch's support for BDS. The ILC, set up in 2003, claims to be 'a fully independent non-profit organization, unaffiliated with any political party or government body.' However, the organisation's director, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, has privately admitted to taking direction from the Israeli Government over which causes to pursue and relying on Israeli intelligence contacts for witnesses and evidence.
"Darshan-Leitner made the comments in 2007 to diplomats from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, who reported the conversation in a cable leaked by WikiLeaks four years later. It states:
Leitner said that in many of her cases she receives evidence from GOI [Government of Israel] officials, and added that in its early years ILC took direction from the GOI on which cases to pursue. 'The National Security Council (NSC) legal office saw the use of civil courts as a way to do things that they are not authorized to do,' claimed Leitner. Among her contacts, Leitner listed Udi Levy at the NSC and Uzi Beshaya at the Mossad, both key Embassy contacts on anti-terrorist finance cooperation. Leitner offered a case against Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as [an] example of ILC's close cooperation with the GOI. After obtaining a judgement against PIJ for NIS 100 million (USD 25 million), ILC requested a lien for that amount against the Abu Akker Trading Company as a third party defendant. At the time, Abu Akker was one of the largest Palestinian importing companies, and Leitner said the Mossad provided her with the intelligence (similar to information provided to USG officials in a classified briefing) to prove that the company was funneling money to PIJ. According to Leitner, the ILC now decides its cases independently, but continues to receive evidence and witnesses from Israeli intelligence.
"The US cable goes on to comment that:
While the ILC's mission dovetails with GOI objectives of putting financial pressure on Israel's adversaries, the often uncompromising approach of ILC's attorney's seems to overreach official GOI policy goals. ILC's relentless litigation has proven to be an obstacle to the GOI's releasing of all customs revenues previously withheld from the PA [Palestinian Authority].
"ILC has engaged in a wide variety of other actions in the US, Australia, Israel itself and in Egypt as well as targeting Iran, Syria, North Korea and the Palestinian Authority. Amongst its targets have been financial situations including UBS, American Express Bank and the Lebanese-Canadian Bank, President Jimmy Carter, World Vision Australia (a Christian aid agency) and, most notably, the largely successful attempt to stop the second Free Gaza Flotilla. This involved a blizzard of legal threats against insurance companies, port authorities and satellite firms. They were informed they would open themselves to criminal liability for 'aiding and abetting' a 'terrorist' organisation or would become 'legally liable' for any future attacks by Hamas.
The Bank of China Affair
"Further details of the ILC's links with Israeli intelligence have emerged amid fallout from a case brought by the firm against the Bank of China. According to accounts in the Israeli press, officials from the NSC approached Darshan-Leitner, after identifying the bank as a conduit for Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Darshan-Leitner found a suitable plaintiff to bring the case in the family of Daniel Wultz, a 16-year-old American citizen killed in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in 2006. Yediot Ahronot reported: 'In her discussions with the intelligence agents, Darshan-Leitner insisted that she receives massive assistance from the government. She demanded convicting information on the bank's activities, affidavits from authorized people and a commitment to provide for the trial an authorized witness who will say that the Chinese knew about the nature of the accounts and refused to close them. The consent was given - orally. In 2009, a lawsuit was filed to the NY Federal Court.'
"This arrangement began to collapse in the face of Chinese Government pressure ahead of a visit to Beijing by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year. The Wultz family has accused the Israeli Government of sabotaging the case by failing to provide the documents it promised at the outset. The standoff is particularly embarrassing because Daniel Wultz's mother, Sheryl Cantor Wultz, is a cousin of Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader in the US Congress.
"Among the key documents at the centre of the case is an affidavit by Uzi Shaya, who may be the same person as 'Uzi Beshaya', the Israeli security official named in the 2007 cable as a contact of both Shurat HaDin and the US Embassy. Another US cable describes Shaya as an officer of Israel's Shin Bet [security] service, working in the Counter Terror Finance Bureau of the Israeli NSC alongside Udi Levi, Darshan-Leitner's other intelligence contact."
To be continued...
BDS campaigner targeted by law firm with links to Israeli intelligence
by Tom Griffin & David Miller (5/10/13)
"A law firm targeting the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement has close links to Israeli intelligence, US government cables leaked by Wikileaks show:
"Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Centre (ILC) made a complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission last month against Jake Lynch, the director of the Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies at Sydney University, over Lynch's support for BDS. The ILC, set up in 2003, claims to be 'a fully independent non-profit organization, unaffiliated with any political party or government body.' However, the organisation's director, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, has privately admitted to taking direction from the Israeli Government over which causes to pursue and relying on Israeli intelligence contacts for witnesses and evidence.
"Darshan-Leitner made the comments in 2007 to diplomats from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, who reported the conversation in a cable leaked by WikiLeaks four years later. It states:
Leitner said that in many of her cases she receives evidence from GOI [Government of Israel] officials, and added that in its early years ILC took direction from the GOI on which cases to pursue. 'The National Security Council (NSC) legal office saw the use of civil courts as a way to do things that they are not authorized to do,' claimed Leitner. Among her contacts, Leitner listed Udi Levy at the NSC and Uzi Beshaya at the Mossad, both key Embassy contacts on anti-terrorist finance cooperation. Leitner offered a case against Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as [an] example of ILC's close cooperation with the GOI. After obtaining a judgement against PIJ for NIS 100 million (USD 25 million), ILC requested a lien for that amount against the Abu Akker Trading Company as a third party defendant. At the time, Abu Akker was one of the largest Palestinian importing companies, and Leitner said the Mossad provided her with the intelligence (similar to information provided to USG officials in a classified briefing) to prove that the company was funneling money to PIJ. According to Leitner, the ILC now decides its cases independently, but continues to receive evidence and witnesses from Israeli intelligence.
"The US cable goes on to comment that:
While the ILC's mission dovetails with GOI objectives of putting financial pressure on Israel's adversaries, the often uncompromising approach of ILC's attorney's seems to overreach official GOI policy goals. ILC's relentless litigation has proven to be an obstacle to the GOI's releasing of all customs revenues previously withheld from the PA [Palestinian Authority].
"ILC has engaged in a wide variety of other actions in the US, Australia, Israel itself and in Egypt as well as targeting Iran, Syria, North Korea and the Palestinian Authority. Amongst its targets have been financial situations including UBS, American Express Bank and the Lebanese-Canadian Bank, President Jimmy Carter, World Vision Australia (a Christian aid agency) and, most notably, the largely successful attempt to stop the second Free Gaza Flotilla. This involved a blizzard of legal threats against insurance companies, port authorities and satellite firms. They were informed they would open themselves to criminal liability for 'aiding and abetting' a 'terrorist' organisation or would become 'legally liable' for any future attacks by Hamas.
The Bank of China Affair
"Further details of the ILC's links with Israeli intelligence have emerged amid fallout from a case brought by the firm against the Bank of China. According to accounts in the Israeli press, officials from the NSC approached Darshan-Leitner, after identifying the bank as a conduit for Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Darshan-Leitner found a suitable plaintiff to bring the case in the family of Daniel Wultz, a 16-year-old American citizen killed in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in 2006. Yediot Ahronot reported: 'In her discussions with the intelligence agents, Darshan-Leitner insisted that she receives massive assistance from the government. She demanded convicting information on the bank's activities, affidavits from authorized people and a commitment to provide for the trial an authorized witness who will say that the Chinese knew about the nature of the accounts and refused to close them. The consent was given - orally. In 2009, a lawsuit was filed to the NY Federal Court.'
"This arrangement began to collapse in the face of Chinese Government pressure ahead of a visit to Beijing by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year. The Wultz family has accused the Israeli Government of sabotaging the case by failing to provide the documents it promised at the outset. The standoff is particularly embarrassing because Daniel Wultz's mother, Sheryl Cantor Wultz, is a cousin of Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader in the US Congress.
"Among the key documents at the centre of the case is an affidavit by Uzi Shaya, who may be the same person as 'Uzi Beshaya', the Israeli security official named in the 2007 cable as a contact of both Shurat HaDin and the US Embassy. Another US cable describes Shaya as an officer of Israel's Shin Bet [security] service, working in the Counter Terror Finance Bureau of the Israeli NSC alongside Udi Levi, Darshan-Leitner's other intelligence contact."
To be continued...
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Charities of Middle Eastern Appearance Only
Murdoch super sleuth Richard Kerbaj continues his relentless pursuit of Australian charities of Middle Eastern appearance. He was last seen hot on the trail of Muslim Aid Australia (MAA) in The Australian of 8/7/08 (See my post 15/7/08, 'On whose back are we fighting terror?'), but has been sighted more recently in The Australian of 25/7/08.
Under the knee-knocking headline, Police raid on 'terror charity', Kerbaj informed us that MAA was "yesterday raided by the federal police... AFP and NSW Police counter-terrorism agents seized computer files and financial records from MAA's headquarters in Lakemba, Sydney's Muslim heartland, during a 7-hour raid." And he, Kerbaj, had unleashed them: "The police action was prompted by The Australian's revelations this month about the charity's connection to Interpal, a humanitarian network proscribed by Australia and the US."
A more highly organised, ruthless and fiendish outfit than MAA would be difficult to imagine. Did you know that MAA's "executive director Mohammed Taha Alsalami... said last night he was shocked that his organisation had failed to pull from its website a fundraising appeal that links its charity work to Interpal... 'It's a shock that it's still there... It shouldn't have been there in the first place. This whole matter is very sensitive now... We have to abide by the law, and there's no question about that... If there was any wrongdoing it should appear." This sinister terrorist mastermind can duck and weave all he likes, but thanks to Kerbaj his dissembling is there for all to see. Palestinians! Lakemba! Mohammad! Guilty!
But there's more! In Charity cancels Gaza appeal (The Australian, 26/7/08), Kerbaj gave us a revealing glimpse into just how efficient and attentive to detail this outfit really is: "MAA removed the 'Gaza Crisis' appeal from its website following a report in The Australian yesterday that it had continued promoting the fundraiser after its Sydney premises were this week raided by police." The smoking gun (Gaza appeal + Interpal logo) was pulled at a cracking pace of just under a month!
Eternally vigilant, Kerbaj is now hot on the trail of yet another 'terror charity'. In Aussie charity banned for 'aiding terror' (The Australian, 31/7/08), he told us that "An Australian charity that distributes humanitarian aid in the Middle East has been banned by the Israeli Government for allegedly bankrolling Palestinian terrorists. Human Appeal International has been accused by the Israeli Defence Forces of supporting the Palestinian organization Hamas." Banned by the Israelis? Guilty! And if any further evidence were necessary, Kerbaj has provided it: "Mr [Bashar] al-Jamal [HAI's director], whose organization has been previously linked to Hamas by the... CIA and the FBI in 2003..." Linked to Hamas by the CIA/FBI? Guilty! When are the AFP going to act on this?
Meanwhile, and entirely coincidentally, Israeli forces are fairly run off their jackbooted feet with raiding, ransacking, and confiscating the contents of nests of Hamasian terror such as shopping malls, charities, orphanages, clinics, media organizations, mosques etc in the West Bank city of Nablus (See The Israeli siege on Nablus, 17/7/08, http://www.palestinemonitor.org/).
Kerbaj's beat, as it happens, is almost exclusively the streets of Lakembastan. Charities not of Middle Eastern appearance are not his shtick. Israeli 'charities' for instance. 'Don't you worry about that!' Rupert's minions in Australia, echoing the words of a long extinct Queensland premier, might have cautioned him.
However, while Kerbaj was diverting us with his tall tales and 'true', the subject of those out-of-bounds Israeli 'charities' managed to sneak, ever so discreetly and tantalisingly, into the pages of the mainstream press: billionaire Australian shopping mall magnate Frank Lowy* (& Sons: David, Peter & Stephen) "hid assets from the Australian Taxation Office, using the European tax haven of Liechtenstein to conceal tens of millions of dollars for more than a decade, a US congressional report has claimed... Lowy, Australia's second-richest man, yesterday 'totally rejected' the assertions. He insisted in a statement that neither he nor any member of his family had done anything wrong, and said that all of the funds had been distributed for charitable purposes in Israel some years ago." (Lowy family 'hid millions', The Australian, 18/7/08) Fascinating! Still, you can be sure that The Australian won't be touching that with or without the proverbial barge pole.
[*"Lowy... joined the Hagana and then the Golani Brigade, fighting during the War of Independence in the Galilee and Gaza. He was seriously wounded during the attack on the village of Sejera in the lower Galilee." (Frank Lowy: From Hagana to $3.8 billion magnate, Jerusalem Post, 29/5/06)]
Under the knee-knocking headline, Police raid on 'terror charity', Kerbaj informed us that MAA was "yesterday raided by the federal police... AFP and NSW Police counter-terrorism agents seized computer files and financial records from MAA's headquarters in Lakemba, Sydney's Muslim heartland, during a 7-hour raid." And he, Kerbaj, had unleashed them: "The police action was prompted by The Australian's revelations this month about the charity's connection to Interpal, a humanitarian network proscribed by Australia and the US."
A more highly organised, ruthless and fiendish outfit than MAA would be difficult to imagine. Did you know that MAA's "executive director Mohammed Taha Alsalami... said last night he was shocked that his organisation had failed to pull from its website a fundraising appeal that links its charity work to Interpal... 'It's a shock that it's still there... It shouldn't have been there in the first place. This whole matter is very sensitive now... We have to abide by the law, and there's no question about that... If there was any wrongdoing it should appear." This sinister terrorist mastermind can duck and weave all he likes, but thanks to Kerbaj his dissembling is there for all to see. Palestinians! Lakemba! Mohammad! Guilty!
But there's more! In Charity cancels Gaza appeal (The Australian, 26/7/08), Kerbaj gave us a revealing glimpse into just how efficient and attentive to detail this outfit really is: "MAA removed the 'Gaza Crisis' appeal from its website following a report in The Australian yesterday that it had continued promoting the fundraiser after its Sydney premises were this week raided by police." The smoking gun (Gaza appeal + Interpal logo) was pulled at a cracking pace of just under a month!
Eternally vigilant, Kerbaj is now hot on the trail of yet another 'terror charity'. In Aussie charity banned for 'aiding terror' (The Australian, 31/7/08), he told us that "An Australian charity that distributes humanitarian aid in the Middle East has been banned by the Israeli Government for allegedly bankrolling Palestinian terrorists. Human Appeal International has been accused by the Israeli Defence Forces of supporting the Palestinian organization Hamas." Banned by the Israelis? Guilty! And if any further evidence were necessary, Kerbaj has provided it: "Mr [Bashar] al-Jamal [HAI's director], whose organization has been previously linked to Hamas by the... CIA and the FBI in 2003..." Linked to Hamas by the CIA/FBI? Guilty! When are the AFP going to act on this?
Meanwhile, and entirely coincidentally, Israeli forces are fairly run off their jackbooted feet with raiding, ransacking, and confiscating the contents of nests of Hamasian terror such as shopping malls, charities, orphanages, clinics, media organizations, mosques etc in the West Bank city of Nablus (See The Israeli siege on Nablus, 17/7/08, http://www.palestinemonitor.org/).
Kerbaj's beat, as it happens, is almost exclusively the streets of Lakembastan. Charities not of Middle Eastern appearance are not his shtick. Israeli 'charities' for instance. 'Don't you worry about that!' Rupert's minions in Australia, echoing the words of a long extinct Queensland premier, might have cautioned him.
However, while Kerbaj was diverting us with his tall tales and 'true', the subject of those out-of-bounds Israeli 'charities' managed to sneak, ever so discreetly and tantalisingly, into the pages of the mainstream press: billionaire Australian shopping mall magnate Frank Lowy* (& Sons: David, Peter & Stephen) "hid assets from the Australian Taxation Office, using the European tax haven of Liechtenstein to conceal tens of millions of dollars for more than a decade, a US congressional report has claimed... Lowy, Australia's second-richest man, yesterday 'totally rejected' the assertions. He insisted in a statement that neither he nor any member of his family had done anything wrong, and said that all of the funds had been distributed for charitable purposes in Israel some years ago." (Lowy family 'hid millions', The Australian, 18/7/08) Fascinating! Still, you can be sure that The Australian won't be touching that with or without the proverbial barge pole.
[*"Lowy... joined the Hagana and then the Golani Brigade, fighting during the War of Independence in the Galilee and Gaza. He was seriously wounded during the attack on the village of Sejera in the lower Galilee." (Frank Lowy: From Hagana to $3.8 billion magnate, Jerusalem Post, 29/5/06)]
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
'On whose back are we fighting terror?'
"Another Zakat [alms to the poor] official in Bethlehem, who wouldn't give his name for security reasons, urged Muslims to bypass government control mechanisms and help the Palestinians face 'this criminal and cruel seige by the enemies of Islam. Please, send your charity money and donations to your brothers and sisters in Palestine. Don't wait for your governments' approval because your governments are likely to be mere puppets of the United States and Israel. We must never reach a situation where we need permission from the Americans to practice our religion. If helping a starving child in Rafah or Nablus is terror, then let all of us be terrorists." (Bleak Ramadan in Palestine, Khalid Amayreh, Live from Palestine, 7/10/06)
"Maria Aman, a 6 year-old Palestinian child, paralyzed from the neck down during an Israeli strike in Gaza in 2006, is now in a battle with the Israeli authorities who are trying to avoid providing her with rehabilitation and treatment in Israel by moving her to Abu Raya Rehabilitation Center in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The... child does not know her condition is permanent. Her father cannot find the words to tell her that this is her condition from now until the end of her life. Maria can only move around with a wheelchair which she controls by a joystick guided by her chin. Her doctors in Israel said that she will face life-threatening conditions if she is moved to the Rehabilitation Center in Ramallah. Yet, the so-called Israeli Defence Ministry is working hard to... transfer her to Ramallah." (Israel attempting to nix its responsibility for treating a child its army paralyzed in 2006, International Middle East Media Center, 8/7/08)
"For Hamas and Hezbollah, every dead Israeli child is a victory and a cause for celebration. For Israel, every dead Palestinian child is a tragedy and a mistake." (Mark Leibler)
"For Israel, the costs of endless war are high." (From a typically clueless SMH editorial, 23/6/08)
While 80% of Israeli-blockaded Gazan and 49% of Israeli-occupied West Bank families now live below the poverty line, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, a Sydney charity, Muslim Aid Australia (MAA), which distributes aid to such families, is now under investigation by charity sector regulator The Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) and the NSW Government's Office of Liquor, Gaming & Racing. Yes, and the Department of Foreign Affairs is reportedly* considering whether to refer MAA to the Australian Federal Police, the folks who gave us L'Affaire Haneef.
[*In his third and latest report on the MAA (AFP probes Sydney charity's 'terror' link, 8/7/08), The Australian's dog whistling Richard Kerbaj, who broke the story on 2/7/08, doesn't seem too sure, beginning with the full throttle "The Australian Federal Police is investigating a Sydney charity..," then dropping back to "The AFP is understood to have stepped in..," before coming to a grinding halt with "The AFP yesterday refused to confirm or deny that it was investigating MAA."]
Heaven forbid that in order to get food and medicines to the malnourished & maimed of Gaza through an Israeli blockade one might have to cooperate with UN agencies and other NGOs, or even with the democratically elected Hamas government of occupied Palestine!
MAA's alleged crime is to have distributed aid to Gaza through UK charity Interpal (Palestinian Relief & Development Fund), an alleged Hamas front. According to Kerbaj, Interpal was "proscribed by former foreign minister Alexander Downer [See my last post on this Nasty], some 3 months after it was "declared a 'specially designated global terrorist' by US President George W Bush in 2003." (Charity used 'terror' group to distribute aid in Gaza, 2/7/08) Being proscribed by Bummer of Baghdad (who could not be swayed by the fact that Interpal had twice been investigated and cleared of "terror links" by the British Charity Commission) means that "it is a criminal offence* under the Charter of the United Nations Act for Australian individuals or organisations to deal with groups identified by DFAT's Consolidated List, which names banned groups and people."
[*10 years in prison & fines of $275,000 for individuals/$11 million for organizations]
Another wonderful legacy of Bummer and the Howard years. Thank God Dicky Kerbaj and The Australian are there to uphold it in the Krudd interregnum.
Would it come as any surprise to know that Interpal is just one of 36 NGOs outlawed by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, allegedly for raising money for Hamas? To know that West Bank shopping malls, schools, medical centres, charities, orphanages and soup kitchens are being raided and closed by the Israeli military as 'Hamas infrastructure'? As Haaretz's Gideon Levy writes: "Residents of the West Bank cannot be simultaneously imprisoned, prohibited from earning a living and offered no social welfare assistance while we strike at those who are trying to do so, whatever their motives. If Israel wants to fight the charitable associations, it must at least offer alternative services. On whose back are we fighting terror? Widows? Orphans? It's shameful." (Israel targets Hamas orphanages, Peter Hirschberg, IPS, 15/7/08)
Is Dicky flying a kite here? Have the Israelis and their conduits down under been putting the hard word on the Australian government to fall in line with this latest Israeli turn of the screw on Palestine's Wretched of the Earth? And if MAA is banned, who's next?
"Maria Aman, a 6 year-old Palestinian child, paralyzed from the neck down during an Israeli strike in Gaza in 2006, is now in a battle with the Israeli authorities who are trying to avoid providing her with rehabilitation and treatment in Israel by moving her to Abu Raya Rehabilitation Center in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The... child does not know her condition is permanent. Her father cannot find the words to tell her that this is her condition from now until the end of her life. Maria can only move around with a wheelchair which she controls by a joystick guided by her chin. Her doctors in Israel said that she will face life-threatening conditions if she is moved to the Rehabilitation Center in Ramallah. Yet, the so-called Israeli Defence Ministry is working hard to... transfer her to Ramallah." (Israel attempting to nix its responsibility for treating a child its army paralyzed in 2006, International Middle East Media Center, 8/7/08)
"For Hamas and Hezbollah, every dead Israeli child is a victory and a cause for celebration. For Israel, every dead Palestinian child is a tragedy and a mistake." (Mark Leibler)
"For Israel, the costs of endless war are high." (From a typically clueless SMH editorial, 23/6/08)
While 80% of Israeli-blockaded Gazan and 49% of Israeli-occupied West Bank families now live below the poverty line, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, a Sydney charity, Muslim Aid Australia (MAA), which distributes aid to such families, is now under investigation by charity sector regulator The Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) and the NSW Government's Office of Liquor, Gaming & Racing. Yes, and the Department of Foreign Affairs is reportedly* considering whether to refer MAA to the Australian Federal Police, the folks who gave us L'Affaire Haneef.
[*In his third and latest report on the MAA (AFP probes Sydney charity's 'terror' link, 8/7/08), The Australian's dog whistling Richard Kerbaj, who broke the story on 2/7/08, doesn't seem too sure, beginning with the full throttle "The Australian Federal Police is investigating a Sydney charity..," then dropping back to "The AFP is understood to have stepped in..," before coming to a grinding halt with "The AFP yesterday refused to confirm or deny that it was investigating MAA."]
Heaven forbid that in order to get food and medicines to the malnourished & maimed of Gaza through an Israeli blockade one might have to cooperate with UN agencies and other NGOs, or even with the democratically elected Hamas government of occupied Palestine!
MAA's alleged crime is to have distributed aid to Gaza through UK charity Interpal (Palestinian Relief & Development Fund), an alleged Hamas front. According to Kerbaj, Interpal was "proscribed by former foreign minister Alexander Downer [See my last post on this Nasty], some 3 months after it was "declared a 'specially designated global terrorist' by US President George W Bush in 2003." (Charity used 'terror' group to distribute aid in Gaza, 2/7/08) Being proscribed by Bummer of Baghdad (who could not be swayed by the fact that Interpal had twice been investigated and cleared of "terror links" by the British Charity Commission) means that "it is a criminal offence* under the Charter of the United Nations Act for Australian individuals or organisations to deal with groups identified by DFAT's Consolidated List, which names banned groups and people."
[*10 years in prison & fines of $275,000 for individuals/$11 million for organizations]
Another wonderful legacy of Bummer and the Howard years. Thank God Dicky Kerbaj and The Australian are there to uphold it in the Krudd interregnum.
Would it come as any surprise to know that Interpal is just one of 36 NGOs outlawed by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, allegedly for raising money for Hamas? To know that West Bank shopping malls, schools, medical centres, charities, orphanages and soup kitchens are being raided and closed by the Israeli military as 'Hamas infrastructure'? As Haaretz's Gideon Levy writes: "Residents of the West Bank cannot be simultaneously imprisoned, prohibited from earning a living and offered no social welfare assistance while we strike at those who are trying to do so, whatever their motives. If Israel wants to fight the charitable associations, it must at least offer alternative services. On whose back are we fighting terror? Widows? Orphans? It's shameful." (Israel targets Hamas orphanages, Peter Hirschberg, IPS, 15/7/08)
Is Dicky flying a kite here? Have the Israelis and their conduits down under been putting the hard word on the Australian government to fall in line with this latest Israeli turn of the screw on Palestine's Wretched of the Earth? And if MAA is banned, who's next?
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