THE indictments this month in an Israeli court of two Palestinians employed by international aid agencies have become a valuable weapon in the Israeli government’s public-relations war against Hamas, the militant Islamist movement that has ruled Gaza since 2007. In the first, a local director for World Vision, one of the world’s largest Christian aid organisations, stands accused of diverting millions of dollars to the armed wing of Hamas; the money, Israel alleges, was used to buy weapons, build fortifications and pay fighters. In the second, an engineer working for the UN Development Programme (UNDP) was charged with building facilities for Hamas.
Israeli intelligence officials claim that these cases are only the first in a series that will show how Hamas has co-opted international aid organisations to bankroll its military activities. Hamas denies the claims, and World Vision and UNDP maintain that their activities in Gaza have been closely audited. The evidence, collected by Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency, will now have to stand up in a civilian court. But the indictments were enough for Israel’s foreign ministry to launch a...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/2bAo5cP
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