Sunday, August 7, 2016

The truth about humanitarian aid - Ariel Bolstein




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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