Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > PA closes down zakat committees proving HLF and others funded Hamas
PA closes down zakat committees proving HLF and others funded Hamas
October 24, 2007
Palestinian Authority Shuts Down Zakat Committees, Hamas' Terror Funders
Palestinian Authority Shuts Down Zakat Committees, Hamas' Terror Funders
By William Mayer and Beila Rabinowitz
October 24, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In an unprecedented move undertaken by the besieged government led by Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority last week moved to dissolve the Zakat committees, which are widely understood to be the chief source of finance for the terrorist group Hamas.
In what amounts to a press release by the Hamas mouthpiece, the Palestinian Information Center [PIC] it was noted:
"…Palestinian sources doubted the real aims behind the dissolution decision, pointing out that this serious step comes within the framework of the arbitrary campaigns waged by Fatah against Hamas. The same sources expect that Fatah elements will be appointed to run the Zakat committees.For his part, Dr. Saleh al-Ruqub, deputy minister of endowments and religious affairs in the caretaker government in Gaza stated to the Palestine newspaper that the real aim behind Bawattna's decision is those members of the Zakat committees who are affiliated with Hamas and to replace them with loyal elements from Fatah.
Dr. Ruqub charged that Fayyad's unconstitutional government intends to seize the funds collected from Zakat and distribute them to Fatah members and their loyalists, pointing out that Hamas has, over the years, proved to be competent and honest in running those committees and Fatah seems to think by depriving Hamas of the Zakat committees they will deprive the movement of something that helped make it popular." [source, PIC, http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s71ZF2LmzUf0ShOBOApsxsnhlPjUjp1yiGpK4yWo53O2SHCIWa4KFOMCAkVx18THekMva1S0wuSn3h0faOb8SxxHsgYQcM6zAERVDtKkzBo7U%3d]
Of course merely shifting the recipients of the funding by Fayyad's Fatah based government may simply result in rewarding a different group of terrorists, but the move goes a long way in establishing as irrefutable, the allegation that the Zakat's have served to fund Hamas.
Not only does this have weighty implication regarding Hamas' future ability to fund its terrorist activities, but it might have a great effect on terror funding prosecutions here in the United States.
In the just concluded fiasco prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation [HLF], which resulted in a mistrial, perhaps the key roadblock that government prosecutors faced in their attempt to in link HLF with terror funding lied in their inability to convince the jury that the HLF giving money to the Zakats was indistinguishable from funding Hamas.
As the Hamas press release continues, "Dr. Ruqub charged that Fayyad's unconstitutional government intends to seize the funds collected from Zakat and distribute them to Fatah members and their loyalists, pointing out that Hamas has, over the years, proved to be competent and honest in running those committees," leaving little doubt that until this move by the PA, Zakat and Hamas were in essence the same entity. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=hamas10.24.07%2Ehtm
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