Guardian provides free PR to Interpal, a “charity” widely known as terrorist front group

The Guardian’s Global Development page, Nov. 17, contained a new post with this header:

The subheading reads:

The British charity Interpal is working to regenerate and rebuild Gaza after the Israeli attacks in 2008 and 2009. The charity has worked with other international NGOs to open up a humanitarian corridor from Egypt that has allowed six convoys to cross the border. Supplies brought in include medicine and medical resources. The organisation also provides funds to buy medical and computer equipment, generators, fuel and seeds.

The photo post includes  pictures such as these:

The caption notes:

Interpal is helping with the rehabilitation of the farm, which is owned by the Palestinian Society of Development Training and Family Rehabilitation. The charity also buys meat, poultry and vegetables from the farm, which it distributes to families struggling to make ends meet.

And, there’s this:

The caption:

Part of the destroyed laboratory buildings of the Islamic University in Gaza. Two university buildings, which contained the science and engineering labs, were destroyed during the Israeli attacks. Interpal has implemented a $500,000 programme to re-equip the labs.

So, the poetic truth of the story is simple enough: A humanitarian NGO assisting Gazans in need after the brutal Israeli assaults during Operation Cast Lead. 

However, for some reason, the Guardian failed to inform their readers of a tiny little detail about the British “charity”, Interpal.

In 2003, the U.S. Treasury published a list of charities it alleged to have links to terrorism.  This list included Interpal, which was defined as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist” that aids Hamas. Specifically, Interpal was included in US Executive Order 13224, which froze the assets of five charitable societies that sponsored Hamas, following evidence which implicated the group in financing the Aug. 19, 2003 bombing of the No.2 Egged bus in Jerusalem, which killed 23 and wounded 130.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya pictured with Essam Yousef, vice-chairman of Interpal, to his left

It has also been reported that senior officials in Interpal, an organization associated with the umbrella group, Union of the Good, continues to transfer funds to the Hamas regime, and has been heavily involved in the coordination of recent “aid” ships to Gaza.

The Union of Good was proscribed by Israel in 2002 and designated as a terrorist organisation by the US in 2008 because it provides financial and material support for Hamas.  The group is headed by Yusuf al Qaradawi, who supports suicide bombings and has explicitly praised Hitler’s genocide against the Jews.

Further, a BBC Panorama report titled Faith, Hate and Charity”, (aired in July 2006), exposed Interpal as a political instrument that assists Hamas’ civilian infrastructureThe program showed that Interpal funds were transferred to Hamas-managed “charitable societies” in the PA-administered territories, used for inculcating Hamas’ radical Islamist ideology in the younger generation of Palestinians and nurturing the ethos of jihad and the cult of martyrdom.

Ibrahim Brian Hewitta British citizen who converted to Islam, is the chairman of Interpal and also the senior editor of the Middle East Monitor (MEMO). The director of MEMO is Dr. Daud Abdullah, a senior figure in the London-based Palestinian Return Center (PRC)an anti-Israeli propaganda group affiliated with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Abdullah is a contributor at ‘Comment is Free’.

The report, cited above, by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, concluded that In addition to providing assistance to the Hamas administration, activists belonging to Interpal hold meetings with Hamas’s Ismail Haniya (and other Hamas activists) aimed to support the political and propaganda efforts exerted by Hamas and its institutions in Gaza to obtain legitimacy in Western countries and thus whitewash its terrorist image.

As such, the Guardian’s Interpal “Global Development” photo shoot served to legitimize the proscribed organization, and whitewash their terrorist image, beyond Interpal leaders’ wildest dreams.

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