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Head of World Vision's Gaza branch Mohammad el-HalabiEliyahu Hershkovitz. Published by Haaretz

Head of World Vision's Gaza branch Mohammad el- HalabiWorld Vision.
Published by Haaretz

Mohammad El Halabi, manager of operations in the Gaza Strip for the US-based charity World Vision, at a court in Beersheba on Thursday. Photograph: Dudu Grunshpan/Reuters. Published by The Guardian

A protest in the Gaza Strip in favor of freeing detainee Mohammed Halabi, of World Vision, August 2016.Mahmud Hams / AFP. Published by Haaretz
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Shin Bet says head of World Vision's Gaza branch transferred funds to Hamas' military wing to build military positions and finance tunnel digging.

Gili Cohen Aug 04, 2016 3:12 PM for Haaretz

The Islamist organization Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has infiltrated the international Christian-sponsored civilian aid group World Vision, to funnel tens of millions of dollars to Hamas’ military wing, Israel’s Shin Bet security service said on Thursday.

A gag order was lifted on the case involving the Shin Bet's June 16 arrest of Mohammed el-Halabi, director of World Vision’s Gaza branch, at the Erez crossing point, as he was headed back to Gaza from Israel.
Halabi was indicted on Thursday for a list of security offenses.

The charge sheet says that Halabi, with a masters degree in engineering, joined Hamas's armed wing Izzedin al-Qassam in 2004 and was asked a year later to infiltrate a humanitarian organization so as "to be close to decision makers in a foreign organization, to be involved in the group and operate secretly to advance al-Qassam's interests."

The Shin Bet accuses Halabi of joining World Vision and sending its funds to Hamas’ military wing, some of it to fund digging military-related tunnels and to purchase weapons.

The Shin Bet alleges that a sum of $80,000 contributed by British donors to assist needy families, and support civilian projects in Gaza were used to build a Hamas position in the Gaza town of Beit Hanun, to pay Hamas activists’ salaries and bonuses members who had fought against Israel in the 2014 war.
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by Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem, for The Guardian
Thursday 4 August 2016 08.47 EDT

Israeli security forces have arrested a senior official of one of the world’s largest Christian charities, accusing him of funnelling tens of millions of dollars to Hamas, including £80,000 from British donations.

Mohammad El Halabi, director of the Gaza branch of World Vision, is alleged to have led a double life as a senior figure in the Islamist organisation and used his position “to divert the humanitarian organisation’s funds and resources from the needy to benefit of Hamas’s terrorist and military activities”.

According to the allegations from Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, the money given by British donors was used to build a military base, dig military tunnels and pay salaries in Hamas’s military wing.

Other donations were allegedly transferred to buy weapons for Hamas in the Sinai during the period that Mohamed Morsi was president of Egypt.

The announcement of Halabi’s arrest followed a raid on World Vision’s office this week. On Thursday, he was indicted on a number of charges, including funding terrorism.

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said the charity was “negligent” for failing to notice what was going on.

World Vision quickly denied the claims against Halabi, whom it described as a well-regarded “humanitarian”. It also said all its operations were properly overseen and audited.

The Guardian was unable immediately to independently corroborate the claims against Halabi, who remains in custody.

According to a Shin Bet statement, Halabi was recruited by Hamas’s military wing in 2004 and received a “very focused mission: to penetrate an international aid organisation and exploit its resources”.

“In fact,” continued the statement, “most of World Vision’s resources in the Gaza Strip – originating in aid money from western states such as the United States, England and Australia – were transferred to Hamas to strengthen its terrorist arm.”

World Vision has an annual budget of just under $3bn (£2.3bn) and employs about 46,000 people worldwide.

Israeli media reports said Halabi had been arrested about six weeks ago at the Erez crossing in Gaza and has been in custody ever since.

According to Shin Bet, Halabi admitted during interrogation to being a member of Hamas since his youth and that he was ordered to “infiltrate” the US-headquartered charity. Halabi is likely to have been denied access to a lawyer for long periods of his detention.

Halabi also allegedly implicated his father, a senior official in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which runs schools and refugee camps, as being a member of Hamas, and claimed he had used his position to help Hamas’s military activities.

The claims – if proved true – would be a big coup for Israel, which has long sought to demonstrate the infiltration of institutions in Gaza by Hamas’s military wing.

According to the allegations levelled by Shin Bet, Halabi “established and promoted humanitarian projects and fictitious agricultural associations that acted as cover for the transfer of monies to Hamas”. Among examples listed were fictitious funding of “greenhouse construction; restoration of agricultural lands; psychological and public health projects for Gaza residents; aid to fishermen; a treatment centre for the physically and mentally disabled; and farmers’ associations.”

The statement said: “All of these projects and associations were used to transfer funds to Hamas. According to El Halabi, the funds … were intended mainly to strengthen the terrorist arm. As such, they were utilised to finance the digging of terror tunnels (not meant for smuggling but for attacks on communities in southern Israel and on Israeli security forces), the building of military bases such as one code-named ’Palestine’ (built in 2015 entirely from British aid money) and the purchase of weapons.

“Some of the money went to pay the salaries of Hamas terrorists and, in some cases, senior Hamas terrorists took large sums of money for their own personal use.”

World Vision said it “stands by Mohammad, who is a widely respected and well regarded humanitarian, field manager and trusted colleague of over a decade.

“He has displayed compassionate leadership on behalf of the children and communities of Gaza through difficult and challenging times, and has always worked diligently and professionally in fulfilling his duties.”

After Halabi’s arrest, World Vision had issued statements complaining about his detention without access to family or lawyers.

Responding to the specific allegation that £80,000 in UK donor funds had been diverted, World Vision UK said in a statement that its operations were properly overseen and audited.

“On 15 June 2016, Mohammad El Halabi, the manager of operations for World Vision in Gaza, was arrested on his way home from routine meetings. On 4 August 2016, after 50 days in Israeli state detention, Mohammad was charged with providing support to Hamas. World Vision subscribes to the humanitarian principles of impartiality and neutrality and therefore rejects any involvement in any political, military or terrorist activities and maintains its independence as a humanitarian aid agency committed to serving the poor, especially children.

“World Vision has detailed procedures and control mechanisms in place to ensure that the funds entrusted to us are spent in accordance with applicable legal requirements and in ways that do not fuel conflict but rather contribute to peace.

“World Vision programmes in Gaza have been subject to regular internal and independent audits, independent evaluations, and a broad range of internal controls aimed at ensuring that assets reach their intended beneficiaries and are used in compliance with applicable laws and donor requirements.”

Richard Verber, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said the claims raised “serious questions” about the fate of British aid for World Vision.

“This raises serious questions about the mechanisms in place to prevent such an outrage occurring,” Verber said. “We also note that World Vision is supported by the Department for International Development, European commission and a host of other international organisations who we expect will investigate this case with the utmost urgency.”
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Israel's Allegations Against World Vision: Credible Charges or Political Ploy?

Presentation of the charges as a given fact, against the employee of an international aid organization, for passing funds to Hamas, raises suspicions that the goal is to weaken voices critical of Israel.

by Amira Hass for Haaretz, August 9, 2016

On Monday the international aid organization World Vision said that the total budget for its Gaza Strip branch during the last 10 years is much smaller than the sums Israel's Shin Bet security service claims were transferred to Hamas. But even before this statement was made, people working in humanitarian aid organizations, and associates and relatives of the detained World Vision employee, Mohammed Halabi, commented that the accusations are unreasonable.

The indictment against Halabi describes a sophisticated, far-sighted scheme involving the planting of a person within the organization, with the aim of misappropriating funds and materials, and passing them on to the military wing of Hamas. To accomplish this, Halabi would have had to overcome World Vision's meticulous and centralized system of allocating money and equipment, contracting suppliers and the regular oversight of accountants. He also would have had to evade the main office of his organization, in East Jerusalem. Workers at other aid organizations are familiar with this well-organized system, and therefore they have cast doubt on the Shin Bet's statements.

In conversations with Haaretz, Palestinian sources have noted two factors which they believe led to the apparently exaggerated and baseless charges against Halabi. The first involved a former employee of World Vision who was fired because he was simultaneously receiving a salary from the Palestinian Authority. He apparently bore a grudge against Halabi because he was fired, and sent the organization a complaint against Halabi that was subsequently examined. However, the man’s claims were found to be untrue.

Recently it was learned that the complainant sold his home in the Strip and moved to Egypt. Is there a connection between the sale of the house and move to Egypt, and the complaint? Did details of the complaint somehow reach the Shin Bet? There are a number of people in Gaza who assume such a connection exists.

The second factor: Halabi was detained for days in a room with asafir – Palestinians collaborators with the Shin Bet, who impersonate detainees for security reasons. He had a hard time dealing with their pressure and abusive methods, Haaretz has learned, and intentionally “confessed” to things that were impossible: for example, transfer of sums of money that would have been inappropriate in terms of the overall budget of the branch in Gaza where he worked and his responsibilities.

The charge-sheet itself is vague and does not mention the precise amount Halabi is suspected of transferring for the benefit of Hamas. The estimated “tens of millions of dollars” or sums of $7.5 million that he supposedly transferred annually from World Vision to the Islamist organization were mentioned only in reports in the Israeli media, probably following verbal briefings by Israeli officials.

According to World Vision’s announcement on Monday, over the past 10 years the total budget for the activities of the group’s branch in the Strip was $22.5 million.

From 2006 until 2014, Halabi was manager of operations for the northern branch of the charity in Gaza, which was smaller than the southern branch – as was its budget. During those years, however, he did not have access to money (one of the charges is that during 2012 and 2013, he allegedly transferred tens of thousands of dollars of the organization’s funds, in cash, to Hamas' military activists).

In late 2014, the two branches were combined and Halabi was named director of World Vision’s operations in the Strip. In this position, too, he would not have been able to choose suppliers on his own (as was implied in one of the clauses of the indictment). The latter are chosen by a committee of World Vision executives and officials, and final decisions are drafted and signed in the central office in Jerusalem.

The contracts that the Gaza manager is allowed to sign are also for small amounts, and must be determined within the framework of the projects and budget set in advance in the Jerusalem headquarters.
The presentation of the charges against Halabi as a given fact – as though he is already guilty – by means of a massive media campaign in Israel, has raised suspicions among employees of international relief organizations that the goal is political: to weaken them all as voices critical of Israeli policies.

For example, the Israel Defense Forces’ coordinator of government activities in the territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, wrote last Sunday that “after a long investigation, we discovered that Hamas is systematically using the money that world nations transfer to support the activities of international groups, such as the international organization World Vision in the Gaza Strip.” In other words: He is generalizing and casting suspicions on all such aid organizations.

That is why Robert Piper, the United Nations’ coordinator for humanitarian aid and development activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, said on Monday in a press release that the Shin Bet’s accusations “raise serious concerns for humanitarian organizations working in Gaza.”

“Redirecting relief away from its intended beneficiaries would be a profound betrayal of the trust put in a senior manager by his employer and by the organization’s donors. Everyone would pay a high price for such acts – beneficiaries and the wider aid effort alike. If proven by a due legal process, these actions deserve unreserved condemnation; Gaza’s demoralized and vulnerable citizens deserve so much better,” said Piper in his statement.

“We now need to wait for the legal process to take its course,” he added. “Mr. Halabi is entitled to his right to a fair trial. International human rights law requires the process to be prompt, thorough, independent, impartial and transparent.”

It would be appropriate for those involved in that legal process to remember that despite all efforts, in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas, no international humanitarian group can work without some contacts with that Islamist organization. Among the many who need aid in the Strip, there are also Hamas supporters. But it is forbidden for the relief groups to differentiate between these supporters and other citizens, when it comes to providing food supplies, initiating agricultural projects or offering psycho-social treatment to children suffering from war trauma.