by Ruthie Blum
On Sunday, a truck
filled with money was delivered to Gaza from Israel. That a large
vehicle was needed for the transport was already a given. Not only does
$13.5 million in cash take up a lot of space, but the procedure itself
has been going on monthly for years.
The earmark for the
dollars is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees in the Near East. To be more specific, it is supposed to cover
the salaries of the UNRWA employees stationed in Gaza. This is in spite
of two facts: that Gaza is run by Hamas, a terrorist organization whose
stated aim is to destroy the Jewish state; and that UNRWA never misses
an opportunity to blame Israel for the plight of the residents used as
human shields by their leaders.
It is both ironic and
outrageous that UNRWA should contribute to the anti-Israel propaganda
perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists. After all, Hamas uses UNRWA
headquarters for the same purpose as it does kindergartens, by storing
and launching rockets in its immediate vicinity. And Israel continues to
funnel funds for its upkeep, come hell, high water or missile fire.
It is, as well, the
height of chutzpah that on Monday, the day after the money was moved — a
mere four days after the Hamas-Israel cease-fire was declared — UNRWA
Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi called for “the illegal Israeli
blockade [of Gaza] to be lifted in all its aspects,” warning that if
this did not happen, “it would be only a matter of time till violence
resumed.”
He then claimed that
the root cause of this “violence” was “the unresolved
Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a broader sense, with all its elements,
including the situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.” In
his self-appointed capacity as Hamas spokesman, Grandi conveniently
omitted the repeated Palestinian claims to the entire state of Israel,
the incessant calls for the murder of Jews anywhere in the world, and
the continued calls for a post-cease-fire “Third Intifada.”
There is nothing new
about the slant and double standards of the U.N., where Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is going to make a bid this Thursday
to receive recognition for “Palestine” as a nonmember state. And it is
no surprise that Hamas supports the maneuver, even from its rival
faction, Fatah.
Nor should it shock
anyone to discover that large portions of the monthly millions Israel
keeps providing UNRWA is appropriated by Hamas, through taxation and
other means, for the purchase and smuggling of weapons — among them
long-range Iranian rockets that reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem last week
— and for the upkeep of the terrorist infrastructure.
Far more mind-boggling
is Israel’s enabling of this through financing. This is why the Israel
Law Center, through its attorney, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, sent a
three-page letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday,
demanding that he put a stop to the illegal practice of funding terror.
According to Darshan-Leitner, with whom I spoke Monday evening, the
government is fully aware that much of the monthly millions that Israel
sends into Gaza is being used for pernicious purposes.
Where the penal code is
concerned, the only condition under which the transfer of funds for
terrorism does not require a seven-year jail sentence and a heavy fine
is if it is approved by the finance minister, after consultation with
the ministers of defense and internal security.
For this reason, one of
the clauses of the letter reads as follows: “My clients wonder whether
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz approved the cash transfer. If no such
approval was given, this is a very serious matter, since the transfer of
cash without approval constitutes a criminal offense. If, however, such
approval was given, it is even more serious, since this would mean that
Finance Minister Steinitz gave written permission for the transfer of
funds which you and your government know very well is being used (in
part) by Hamas for the purchase of rockets fired at Israeli civilians.
It is important to stress that even if approval was granted by the
finance minister for the transfer of cash to Gaza, nevertheless, this
action is liable to expose those involved to criminal and civil
proceedings brought by victims of terrorism, including in U.S. courts.”
The letter goes on to
suggest alternative ways for money to go to residents of Gaza — “though
Israel has no obligation to do so” — that entail a prohibition on the
funds exiting the Gaza Strip. This could be done, according to
Darshan-Leitner, by stamping the cash in such a way as to make it
non-transferable to banks outside Gaza.
As of the posting of
this piece, there has been no response to the letter. But this is not
the first time such appeals have been made to the Netanyahu government,
indicating that this one will not have immediate impact. It didn’t even
make the news, let alone upstage the resignation of Defense Minister
Ehud Barak from politics (to which the Palestinians are pointing as
evidence of their victory in Gaza) or the Likud primaries.
The only possible logic
behind the policy of moving such huge sums into Gaza — and providing
other services, such as electricity — is for Israel to have some form of
leverage over Hamas. This might make sense, even under current
Orwellian circumstances, if the government was ever actually to exercise
this leverage. But it has not even had the guts to shut off Gaza’s
power, in any sense of the word.
Ruthie Blum is the author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the Arab Spring.”
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=2954
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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