Wednesday 2 June 2010

There’s no charity in Viva Palestina [updated]

Following the appearance  of Gaza faux-tilla fool Nicola Enchmarch last night on the alleged current affairs show Sunday,  I’m re-posting this critique from last week of the organisation for which she works.

Repeaters have been reporting that New Zealand woman Nicola Enchmarch, being held in Israeli custody, works for what they is an “aid organisation” called Viva Palestina.

HERALD: “Enchmarch is a member of the British aid group Viva Palastina
STUFF: “ ... one of a number of people[working for] aid organisation Viva Palestina
TV3: “…working for a British aid organisation - Viva Palestina

If Viva Palestina is an aid organisation, then I’m the UN Secretary General.

Viva Palestina was founded by George Galloway.  Remember him?  The former British MP who received millions of dollars stolen from the United Nations Oil-For-Food Program, in exchange for his public denunciations of the UN sanctions against Iraq.  Who once told Saddam Hussein, "I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability.” Who recalls the day that the Soviet Union fell as the worst day of his lifeWho used to fly the Palestinian flag over the Dundee Town Hall. Who set up the Mariam Appeal as an anti-sanction “charity”  whose stated purpose was "to provide medicines, medical equipment and medical assistance to the people of Iraq.” But a four-year inquiry by the House of Commons Select Committee on Standards and Privileges found massive amounts of incontrovertible evidence -- including bank records and Iraqi government vouchers -- that Galloway had used the money largely to enrich himself, suspending from the House of Commons for his egregious breach of ethics.

This is the founder of the front organisation for which Miss Etchmarch works—an organisation founded by Galloway holding up a bag of money and declaring: “This is not charity ... This is politics.”  One set up explicitly “as a challenge to international law”; one that has given given millions of dollars as well as non-cash aid directly to Hamas.  “It’s not about charity ... but in every way that we cut it, it is political.” That’s how Lamis Deek, a member of both Viva Palestina and Al-Awda, described it.

Viva Palestina does not hold formal charity status; rather (like other radical organisations) it uses the tax-exempt status of The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization/Pastors for Peace (IFCO) as a conduit to funnel funds and materiel to Hamas.

Their last convoy, in January, saw Viva Palestina protestors erupt in violence at the Egyptian-Gaza border, leaving dozens injured and an Egyptian soldier dead.

Viva Palestina is not about charity ... but in every way you cut it, it is political.  And can be violent.

So let’s stop this nonsense about calling it a charity organisation, shall we.

[Thanks to David Horowitz’s Discover the Networks for many of the links.]

UPDATE: It now appears the “peace activists” on board the Mamara who confronted the boarding Israelis with peaceful iron bars, knives and molotov cocktails were recruited by Turkish  organisation IHH, who co-organised the flotilla with the Free Gaza Movement.

    “Better known by its Turkish name (Insani Yardim Vakfi) and acronym (IHH), the Foundation's initial mission was to supply aid to Bosnian Muslims during their conflict with Christian Serbs in the Yugoslavian civil war. To this day, IHH continues to send aid to distressed areas throughout the Middle East – in the form of food, medicine, vocational education, and the construction of schools, hospitals, medical clinics, and mosques. According to Reuters, IHH “has been involved in aid missions in Pakistan, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Indonesia, Iraq, Palestinian territories and other places.” In recent years, IHH has also established branch offices in a number of European countries.
While IHH is involved in the foregoing humanitarian activities, its overall objectives are much broader…”  Read on here.

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