by Ariel Bolstein
As it turns out, when it comes to the Gaza Strip, the money donated by charitable individuals in Europe, Australia and the U.S. went mainly to help Hamas' military wing. Among other things, the money was used toward purchasing weapons in Sinai, digging attack tunnels and paying the salaries of terrorists and their families.
The reports surrounding
the arrest of Mohammad Halabi, director of the Gaza branch of the
humanitarian organization World Vision, have sent shockwaves throughout
the globe. This is a well-known, worldwide charity organization -- one
of the world's largest in fact -- that purports to help third world
children.
As it turns out, when
it comes to the Gaza Strip, the money donated by charitable individuals
in Europe, Australia and the U.S. went mainly to help Hamas' military
wing. Among other things, the money was used toward purchasing weapons
in Sinai, digging attack tunnels and paying the salaries of terrorists
and their families.
The Hamas murderers did
not stop there. They accepted thousands of food packages as well as
other supplies intended for the poor. When devout Christian worshippers
in churches across the U.S. donated a dollar or two to "those poor
children," the smiling faces on the receiving end were Hamas terrorists
in Gaza.
More than half of the
organization's annual aid budget was funneled directly to Hamas. In
total , the terror organization received between 40-50 million dollars
and this may just be the tip of the iceberg, as there are other
humanitarian groups that have poured tremendous amounts of money into
these black holes referred to at times as "rehabilitation of Gaza" and
"assistance to the Palestinians."
For years, World Vision
members, including senior officials, contributed to anti-Israel
efforts. Time and again they have taken advantage of every possible
forum to portray Israel as the culprit behind the suffering of
Palestinian children. Never ones to be confused by the facts, they
neglected to mention that they knew very well that Hamas was using the
civilian population of Gaza as human shields, launching rockets at
Israel from residential neighborhoods and storing weapons at schools.
Not a word of
condemnation for Hamas was ever heard. But with respect to Israel, it
has been a festival of lies and false accusations. In 2012, for example,
the president of World Vision in the U.S. claimed that Israel had
prohibited Christian from Judea and Samaria as well as Gaza from
celebrating Easter in Jerusalem. The allegation was completely false
(that year Israel granted more than 20,000 permits to travel to
Jerusalem for Easter, far more than were requested). Still, the
irreparable damage to Israel's reputation in the eyes of the Christian
world was done.
And if that wasn't bad
enough, World Vision has contributed extensively to other anti-Israel
endeavors in the years since. For instance, the organization bankrolled a
program called "Christ at the Checkpoint," which aimed to portray
Israel to American Christians as the embodiment of all evil. The program
appealed to this audience's most basic emotions: they were asked to
imagine Jesus himself being harassed by Israeli soldiers at a border
checkpoint. This was, in fact, anti-Semitism of the worst order, playing
into the idea that the Jews abused the son of God and now they are
abusing other poor souls.
In fact, a large
portion of the funding that goes into the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions movement actually comes from innocent donors, who are certain
their donations are going toward saving lives in developing countries
somewhere in Asia or Africa.
Sadly, World Vision is
not the only charity organization that has been dragged into the
anti-Israel efforts. Other organizations, such as Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International, have also fallen into the same trap.
All this is happening
in a world where there are tens of millions of people who really need
charitable assistance, with tens of millions of people in the West who
are willing to donate generously to help worthy causes, or so they
believe. These kind, naïve donors, are being taken advantage of every
day in the most awful of ways.
Ariel Bolstein
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=16885
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