Money for HAMAS from UN and under pressure from Israel

Where Hamas Gets Its Money 	2009-01-16
Forbes.com

By Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld

Amid international condemnation of Israel, one would never guess that 
humanitarian aid and even cash is flowing into Hamas coffers, while its 
rockets continue to hit Israel.

It is important to alleviate the suffering of innocent Palestinians. 
However, since Gaza is under Hamas control, we have to ask: Will aid reach 
the suffering populace? If the past is any indication, most funds and 
supplies will end up with Hamas.

The world community that berates Israel for defending itself from constant 
attacks by the terrorist group also facilitated Hamas' victory in the 2006 
Palestinian Authority election, when it was allowed to run under the name 
"List of Change and Reform."

Since then, despite repeated promises to cut off funds for Hamas, 
international aid organizations and many countries kept on sending money 
to Gaza, purportedly for humanitarian aid. The United Nations Relief and 
Works Agency, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, raises money for 
Gaza through its Web site, with payments going through WorldPay (part of 
the Royal Bank of Scotland Group), the Arab Bank PLC in Gaza and HSBC in 
Amman, Jordan. Those funds come in addition to UNRWA's annual budget of 
$400 million.

The $7 billion to $10 billion that the Palestinian Authority has received 
since 1993 has come from the European Union, the U.N., the U.S., Saudi 
Arabia and other Arab League countries. France alone has sent more than $3 
billion. This influx of cash has done little to advance the development of 
a viable Palestinian state or of peace in the region. Rather, it has 
helped to fuel the Palestinian leadership's terrorist agenda, and kept the 
Palestinian people oppressed and disenfranchised.

In the mid-1990s--shortly after the Palestinian Authority came into 
existence--the Palestinian writer Fawaz Turki described the regime as "the 
dissolution of civilized society, of all civil norms and all hope." 
Despite all of this, most international organizations and the world 
community at large continue to ignore the ongoing human and civil rights 
violations perpetrated against the Palestinians by their own leadership, 
including the destruction of Gaza and the death of hundreds of its 
citizens.

In a meeting hosted by Abu Dhabi on Jan. 12, representatives from the 
Palestinian Authority and several donor countries, including Egypt, 
Britain and the U.S., met to discuss efforts to raise and send undisclosed 
amounts of money to help Palestinians in Gaza. The United Arab Emirates 
(UAE) also pledged to rebuild schools, mosques, hospitals and 1,300 
damaged Gaza houses. In addition, the Emirates raised more than $87 
million in a nationwide telethon on Jan. 9.

How would the money find its way to Gaza? "It is now the job of experts to 
funnel the cash," said UAE Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash. The experts do 
not have to look hard: They can funnel the money through the vast tunnel 
network that runs from the Egyptian border into Gaza. The Israelis have 
destroyed many of these tunnels, but enough remain through which to 
continue to smuggle cash and other supplies, including weapons.

The buildup of this underground complex sped up after March 2007, when the 
U.S. gave Egypt $23 million in special aid to stop underground smuggling 
into Gaza. Despite that apparent failure, on Friday, Jan. 16, under 
American and international pressure, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni 
signed an agreement with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, under 
which the U.S. will commit resources to help Egypt patrol the boundary.

Supplies and cash for Hamas have been pledged from all over the world, not 
merely from Iran, On Jan. 3, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz 
donated $8 million of the more than $26.7 million raised in a national 
fundraising telethon for the "Relief of the Palestinian People in Gaza." 
Qatar, which pledged $50 million when Hamas was elected in 2006, promised 
to send more.

While condemning Israel, the European Union pledged more than $4 million 
in "humanitarian aid" to Gaza. In 2008, it provided Gaza with $55.6 
million. In addition, European Union member states pledged more than $41 
million, including $10.5 million from the British government's Department 
for International Development. Japan pledged $10 million, and 
terror-struck India said it would send $1 million. Norway has announced a 
pledge of about $4.5 million, while Australia is adding $3.5 million in 
addition to the $32 million it gave in 2008. Additionally, other countries 
sent tons of medical and humanitarian supplies. This more than meets the 
UNRWA emergency appeal for $34 million.

For more on this subject, see:

Claudia Rosett On The Relationship Between UNRWA and Hamas

Michael Young On The New Middle East Cold War

A Novelist On Setting Fiction In Gaza

Incredibly, Israel also supplies Hamas with cash. It began transferring 
truckloads of cash to Gaza after Hamas' violent takeover of the territory 
in June 2007. The first transfer of more than $51 million (delivered in 
Israeli shekels) was purportedly to strengthen the influence of 
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the Gaza Strip and pay 
the salaries of 35,000 Palestinian Authority employees then allegedly 
loyal to him. Among those employees, however, were Ismail Haniya, the 
Hamas-appointed prime minister in Gaza, and Mahmoud Zahar, Hamas' foreign 
minister.

Zahar prides himself on many successful terrorist attacks against Israel, 
and his position regarding Israel is clear. "All of Palestine, every inch 
of Palestine belongs to the Muslims," he has said. If the goal was to 
strengthen Abbas' position, the cash should have been delivered to him in 
the West Bank city of Ramallah. From there, he could have transferred the 
money to Gaza, as he has done in the past, and claim credit for it.

Yet the Israelis relied on Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's 
promise that the money would not reach Hamas or be used for any terrorist 
activity--even though Fayyad has little control over Palestinian Authority 
funds in Fatah-controlled West Bank, let alone in Hamas-controlled Gaza. 
Not long ago, Fayyad himself stated (and not for the first time) that 
controlling Palestinian finances "is virtually impossible." Besides, 
promises by Fatah leaders that they will stop funds from going to Hamas 
are dubious at best.

Despite Fatah-Hamas disagreements, the Palestinian Authority's Fatah-led 
government announced on Jan. 15, 2008, its intentions to give Hamas 40% 
($3.1 billion) of the $7.4 billion pledged in December 2007 by 
international donors. In October 2008, despite the crackdown on Fatah 
members in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority was paying the salaries of 
77,000 "employees."

In December 2008, under U.S. and international pressure, Israel delivered 
between $64 million and $77 million in cash to Gaza. When Hamas rocket 
attacks intensified, Israeli banks started refusing to transfer cash to 
Gaza. World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick, International Monetary Fund 
Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and Tony Blair, who is now 
Mideast envoy for the E.U., Russia, the U.N. and the U.S., sent a letter 
to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert complaining that such refusals are 
"counterproductive and ultimately harm Palestinian moderates." Clearly, 
the world community is set on seeing the terrorist group Hamas as 
legitimate. But demanding that Israel pay its own executioners goes way 
too far.

Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is director of the American Center for Democracy and 
author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It.

http://www.acdemocracy.org/article/invent_index.php?id=664