Will US Taxpayers Fund Hamas Through New Humanitarian Aid?

Jerusalem, 31 October, 2023 (TPS) -- As the West continues to raise concern for the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, one expert warned that funds could easily be funneled to Hamas through non-governmental organizations.

“At least $1 billion is channeled every year into Gaza under the label of ‘humanitarian aid, mainly through governments, UN agencies and a network of NGOs,’ Professor Gerald Steinberg explained to the Tazpit Press Service.

Steinberg is the founder and president of NGO-Monitor, a Jerusalem-based organization that monitors the activities of non-governmental organizations.

“All of their officials who work in or visit Gaza were aware of the theft of materials to pay the Hamas terror army, to build kilometers of concrete-reinforced tunnels, and to manufacture thousands of rockets — but they chose to remain silent. They all share responsibility for enabling the October 7 massacres,” Steinberg insisted.

One case in point is World Vision, a US-based Christian aid organization.

“The case of World Vision stands out because many of the details are available following the arrest, trial and conviction of their Gaza manager, Mohammed El-Halabi,” Steinberg said.

In 2022, Halabi was convicted and given a 12-year sentence for transferring $50 million of World Vision funds to Hamas.

Specifically, Halabi was recruited by Hamas in 2004 to infiltrate World Vision. From the time World Vision hired him in 2005, he regularly met with Hamas operatives, who were especially interested in acquiring tools for digging tunnels. Halabi established and promoted humanitarian projects and fictitious agricultural associations that acted as cover for the illicit financial transfers.

An Israeli investigation revealed that the main method used to divert money to Hamas was putting out fictitious tenders for World Vision-sponsored projects in the Gaza Strip. The “winning” company was made aware that 60% of the project’s funds were to be designated for Hamas.

Halabi personally visited tunnels on at least two occasions, and gave a Hamas operative $20,000 to repair tunnels damaged by flooding.

Some of the money went to pay the salaries of Hamas terrorists and, in some cases, senior Hamas terrorists took large sums of money for their own personal use.

“After Halabi was arrested in 2016, World Vision sent two officials who asked to speak to me, including the manager of their West Bank and Gaza projects. She told me that she visited Gaza periodically to check on the activities, and the farmers showed her the fields and produce,” Steinberg told TPS.

“I asked whether she mentioned concrete tunnels that were probably underneath the fields – she simply shook her head. It was clear that she understood the question. This characterized the entire aid industry’s policy of silent cooperation with Hamas,” Steinberg said.

Halabi’s trial and conviction was closely followed in Australia, which had been providing public money to World Vision.

Michael Danby, who was a member of Australia’s House of Representatives from 1998-2019 told TPS he was shocked by the reaction World Vision gave to inquiring lawmakers.

“It was an insolent attitude of World Vision officials in Australia, Israel and the US to the effects of fungible funding of terrorist organizations,” Danby told TPS.

When an Israeli court invalidated World Vision’s charitable status in Israel in January 2023, Danby said, “the court found that World Vision didn’t fulfill the mandatory requirements of any charity. Their receipts and expenditures for tens of millions of dollars didn’t add up. I think they were off by $40 million. Some of that funding came from the US.”

In the US, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has been pressing World Vision to explain exactly what happened to $491 million it received from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2022.

“It is paramount that U.S. dollars do not, in any way, shape or form, fund or encourage terrorism. Through my investigations into World Vision and work to hold our government agencies accountable, my goal is to improve transparency and make sure every cent of taxpayer money is used as intended and not for illegal activity,” the Senator said in a statement to the Tazpit Press Service in August.

Because of Halabi’s trial, much is known about World Vision and its connection to terror. But World Vision isn’t the only organization that has raised Israeli concerns.

In October 2021, then Defense Minister Benny Gantz blacklisted six Palestinian non-governmental organizations as terror groups linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The most prominent of the six NGOs are Al-Haq, which spearheads legal campaigns and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions activities against Israel, and Addameer, which advocates for Palestinian prisoners. Both are based in Ramallah.

The other four designated NGOs are Defense for Children-International Palestine, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees and the Bisan Research and Advocacy Center. Several of these organizations received funding from European governments.

“Those organizations were active under the cover of civil society organizations, but in practice belong and constitute an arm of the [PFLP] leadership, the main activity of which is the liberation of Palestine and destruction of Israel,” the Defense Ministry said.

Asked about his biggest concerns moving forward, Steinberg said, “Two issues: The continuation of diverting NGO ‘aid’ funding to Hamas terror, and the central role of NGOs and UN officials in demonizing Israeli counterterror actions through ‘war crimes’ and ‘collective punishment’ labels.”