The US Treasury Department has announced today that it is imposing sanctions on two Lebanon-based charities with activities in the Gaza Strip, accusing them of being “Hamas-controlled” but providing no evidence to that effect.
The first group, the al-Waqifya Association, is the Lebanese part of the umbrella organization the Union of Good, which is itself already sanctioned. The group’s US-based auxiliary, the Holy Land Foundation, was shut down by the Bush Administration, and its founders imprisoned as “terrorists” for providing humanitarian aid to hospitals and schools in the Gaza Strip which were controlled by Hamas.
The other group, the al-Quds Institute, is primarily an activist organization, with most of its high profile activities dedicated to raising awareness of the occupation of Palestinian lands in general and within Jerusalem in particular. The group has also funded several plans aimed at preserving significant heritage sites in Jerusalem.
The Union of Good at one point was accused of funneling some of its funding to the families of slain Hamas fighters, but it isn’t clear exactly what the al-Quds Institute is being accused of, and the Treasury Dept. statement provides no information.
all at the behest of the israeli lobby ,,you can bet on that one
…But as an American citizen, it's now fine, dandy & LEGAL to send money and other "material support" to the MEK while they murder up a storm. Does anyone really require more proof that our government is run by deranged sociopaths?
Totally disgusting – our Government sabotaging the rights of people standing up to an illegal occupation. What a cowardly, underhanded move. The only question to be answered is whether our Treasury Dept acted out ignorance or pure meaness. Reminds me that Thomas Jefferson once said that such actions made him "fear a just God".
following right along with what you have written along with previous writer (RC) I would remind folks about Glenn Greenwald's' column in Guardian last week about an American Iraqi scientist, Dr Hamoodi, 60 yrs old, who's been sending money to his blind aged mother and other relatives back in Iraq was arrested for 'breaking sanctions' there…he is facing 3 years while he waits from his cell in Levenworth…what madness ?!! http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/…
Your tax dollars at work.