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)]

'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?