French Court Backs Palestinian Charity

The charity has aided up to 15,000 families and orphans over the past three years.

"The ruling is an evidence that the charity is playing a noble role in serving the Palestinian people and orphaned children," charity's director Ali Gabbarah told IslamOnline.net.

The court ruled on Thursday, March 8, that the Simon Wiesenthal center had no justifications whatsoever to accuse the Palestinian charity of financing terrorism.

The ruling said that the rationale given by the center to prove its charges against the charity were erroneous and inaccurate.

It also ordered the centre to pay back the legal fees footed by the Palestinian charity.

"The ruling is a testimony from Western institutions and the French judiciary that our work is legal despite non-stop Zionist campaigns in Europe to shut down the charity and tighten the siege on the Palestinian people," said Gabbarah.

In 2004, the Simon Wiesenthal centre accused the charity of raising funds overtly for Palestinian orphans, but the money were channeled to the Palestinian resistance group Hamas to carry out what it said terrorist attacks against Israel.

It argued that the US government in 2003 blacklisted the Palestinian charity as a pro-terror group.

The center also urged the French Interior ministry to track 5-6 million euros the charity had transferred to the Palestinian territories.

The Simon Wiesenthal center was established in Los Angeles in 1977 and has branches in many European countries.

In recent years, the French branch of the center has launched campaigns accusing Muslim groups of Anti-Semitism and terror finance.

Unblemished

Gabbarah since this ferocious campaign against the charity was launched three years ago, French authorities opened several probes that proved that our fundraising was legal and unblemished.

"Prime Minister Dominique De Villepin made it clear when he was foreign minister that our organization was doing only charity and countered many closure calls," he said.

"The charity is only helping the Palestinian people and the needy," added Gabbarah.

The Humanitarian Committee for Support of Palestine has launched several campaigns to raise funds for needy Palestinians and orphaned children.

The group has also campaigned to raise awareness of the French public on the dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian lands.

The charity has helped nearly 15,000 Palestinian children in the past three years.

The United States and European Union suspended direct aid to the Palestinians after Hamas was voted to power last March.

Since then, the Palestinians have been gripped by their worst economic crisis with tens of thousands of civil servants going unpaid.

A report by the UN World Food Program, released on Thursday, estimated that nearly half of Palestinians were unable to produce or access the food they needed.