JRNAL.

OPINION WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 2003

Blood Money
By Matthew Levitt Hamas fund-raising in Europe and elsewhere for the charity committee into Hamas.
is nothing new, and the social-welfare organiza- • Khalil Ali Rashad Dar Rashad, an associ-
Even as President Bush invests his consider- tions it funds play a direct role in facilitating ated member of the Orphan Care Association in
able personal prestige and the power of his of- terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings. Bethlehem, was known to provide shelter-and
fice in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, his ini- Hamas is known to use the hospitals it main- assistance to Hamas fugitives, including Hamas
tiative is threatened by the continued flow of tains as meeting places; to bury caches of arms bomb maker Muni a-Din al-Sharif and Hassan
financial and logistical support for Hamas terror and explosives under its own kindergarten play- Salameh, the commander behind the string of
attacks through the group's social-welfare infra- grounds; to use dawa operatives' cars and suicide bus bombings in February-March 1996.
structure. homes to ferry and hide fugitives; and to trans- More recently, when Israeli forces raided the
fer and launder funds for terrorist activity Tulkarm zakat committee in April 2002 they
The first phase of the road map requires the through local charity (zakat) committees. Funds
Palestinian Authority to begin "sustained, tar- from abroad support these activities. found material lauding Hamas suicide attacks
geted, and effective operations aimed at con- and records showing the International Islamic
fronting all those engaged in terror and the dis- Take for example Muhammad Zouaydi, a se- Relief Organization, a Saudi charity deeply in-
mantlement of terrorist capabilities and infra- nior al Qaeda financier detained by Spanish volved in terror financing, donated at least
structure." Unfortunately, all signs indicate that $280,000 to the Tulkarm Zakat Committee and
key segments of the international community It's time for the European other Palestinian organizations linked to Hamas.
will do little to help stem the flow of funds and Union and Arab states to stop Such evidence led David Aufhauser, general
support through Hamas front organizations. counsel to the Treasury Department and chair of
Junding Hamas. the National Security Council's policy coordinat-
ing committee on terrorist financing, to describe
Even as they call for renewed U.S. "engage- police. Spanish investigators found documents the logic of making distinctions between terror-
ment" in Mideast peace, European and Arab gov- revealing Zouaydi financed not only the Ham- ist groups' charitable and military wings as
ernments continue to whitewash the role of Ha- burg cell responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, "sophistry." By his assessment, "the idea that
mas social-welfare (dawa) activists and organiza- but also Hamas. According to Spanish prosecu- there's a firewall between the two defies com-
tions in facilitating the group's terror attacks. tors, Zouaydi funded the Hebron Muslim Youth mon sense."
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Association, a "known" Hamas organization "fi- Palestinians face dire social-welfare needs
Syria insists Hamas and Islamic Jihad offices in nanced by activists of said organization living unaddressed by the PA, a situation Hamas ea-
Damascus are merely "media offices." Even abroad." Spanish police also say Zouaydi gave gerly exploits. Tolerating this exploitation is nei-
more disturbing, the European Union refuses to $6,600 to Sheikh Helal Jamal, a Palestinian reli- ther in the interest of Israeli-Palestinian peace
crack down on Hamas front organizations and gious figure in Madrid tied to Hamas. -nor Palestinian humanitarian aid. Indeed, Is-
the Hamas dawa infrastructure-both of which U.S. investigations led to similar conclusions. lamic social welfare groups that contaminate
provide financial and logistical support for Ha- An FBI memorandum on the Holy Land Founda- their benevolent activities with support for ter-
mas terrorist attacks-even as it demands such tion for Eelief and Development-the primary rorism muddy the waters of charitable giving
action of the PA in the road map it co-authored. Hamas front organization in the U.S. until its and good works, making the job that much
p Last week, the U.S. and Britain froze the as- closure in December 2001-noted that Hamas "be- harder for those simply trying to-better condi-
/ sets of the al Aqsa InternationaTFoundation, a nevolent programs are used to enhance its im- tions in the West Bank and Gaza.
Hamas front organization funding "Palestinian ~ age and earn goodwill in the Palestinian commu-
fighters" while recording its disbursements as nity." FBI surveillance of a 1993 Hamas meeting The international community must insist that
"contributions for charitable projects." Germany in Philadelphia captured Hamas fund-raisers de- humanitarian support for Palestinians be divorced
and Denmark already shut the group's offices ciding that "most or almost all" funds collected from support for terrorist activity—both to ob-
there, and the Netherlands, Luxembourg and from that point on "should be directed to en- struct Hamas efforts to torpedo President Bush's
Switzerland also took action against the founda- hance the Islamic Resistance Movement [Ha- peace initiative and to clear the names of humani-
tion. Still, the group's offices and activities in mas] and to weaken the self-rule government tarian groups untainted by terror. It is essential
Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Yemen, Paki- [PA]." To that end, the Holy Land Foundation that the EU, Gulf states and others strictly regu-
^stan and South Africa remain untouched. funded zakat committees tied to Hamas. late which Palestinian charities receive interna-
The Hamas social-welfare activists running
Nor has the EU added al Aqsa to its financial these organizations are often closely tied to the tional aid and shut down front organizations rais-
blocking list of terrorist entities. The EU lists group's ing funds for Hamas and other terrorist groups.
terror cells, or are themselves current or
only the Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades military former terror-cell Mr. Aufhauser hit the nail on the head when
"wing," not Hamas itself or its support infra- of the FBI's manymembers. examples:
Consider just three he said, "No one is at war with the idea of
structure, and therefore refuses to add fronts building hospitals or orphanages or taking care
like al Aqsa to its terrorism list. (Ironically, al • Fadel Muhammad Salah Hamdan, a mem- of people who are displaced. But the same people
Aqsa's Yemen representative was arrested not ber of the Ramallah Zakat Committee, was "di- that govern how to apply the money to hospitals
only for funding Hamas, but also for providing rectly connected with the planning of suicide govern how to apply the money to killing people,
money, arms, communication gear and recruits attacks and the spiritual preparation of those and you cannot abdicate responsibility for one
^tp al Qaeda). The EU stance is particularly gall- about to commit suicide attacks, including the and celebrate what you're doing on the other: it
Ing in light of a recently disclosed 1996 CIA docu- Mahane Yehuda attack in July 1997.']_ remains blood money." For the president's peace
ment on world-wide charitable organizations fi- • Ahmed Salim Ahmed Saltana, head of the initiative to succeed, the international commu-
nancing terror that refers to Hamas operatives Jenin Zakat Committee, was involved in transfer- nity must endorse this basic principle.
and front organizations throughout Europe, in- ring bomb-making materials for the preparation Mr. Levitt, senior felloiv at The Washington
cluding the United Kingdom, Denmark, Austria of explosives in 1992, participated in a car bomb- Institute for Near East Policy, is author of "Tar-
and Croatia. ing' in 1993, and recruited young men working geting Terror" (Washington Institute, 2003).