• Published 00:00 24.08.07
  • Latest update 00:00 24.08.07

Haniyeh slams U.S. decision to blacklist major Gaza charity

Hamas leader says U.S. ban aimed at weakening Hamas in Gaza; charity assets frozen for links to terror.

By Reuters Tags: Hamas Gaza

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday slammed a U.S. decision to blacklist a major Gaza charity as an attempt to weaken the Islamist group after it seized control of the coastal region.

The bank accounts of the al-Salah Association, one of the largest Islamic charities in the Gaza Strip, were frozen earlier this month by Palestinian banks after the U.S. government designated it a "key support node for Hamas".

"The decision is connected to the siege imposed on 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip," Haniyeh said at a ceremony hosted by al-Salah.

Economic sanctions have been a centrepiece of an international campaign imposed since Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006.

Palestinian and Western officials said this month that a U.S-backed campaign against Hamas was expanded to include Islamic charities that helped propel it to power.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in June dismissed the government led by Haniyeh after the Islamist group seized control of the Gaza Strip by force, and appointed a new cabinet based in the occupied West Bank headed by Salam Fayad.

Fayad has been trying to reduce the influence of Hamas and its welfare arms by building a government-run social service system using Western and Arab funds.

Haniyeh accused both local and international groups of trying to bring Hamas down.

"They imposed the siege because they did not want the Islamist example represented in Hamas to succeed in governance and politics," Haniyeh said, adding that Hamas would remain in power despite international pressures.

Officials in al-Salah, based in the Deir el-Balah refugee camp in Gaza, say its programmes are open to all under- priveliged Palestinians, whether they are from Hamas or not.

The U.S. government said Hamas used al-Salah "to finance its terrorist agenda".

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  • 21. 0 0
    Disgraceful comments by Dutch
    • Murray of Montreal
    • 25.08.07
    • 20:43

    She would give her eye teeth to see Hamas charities succeed in bilking charitable Americans so that Hamas could murder more Israeli children.

  • 20. 0 0
    more than 50 yrs
    • Armando Varagas
    • 24.08.07
    • 10:05

    more than 50 years since Isreal occupied Palestine and these people have not seen a light at the end of the tunnel....... Hamas is reflecting the general mood of an oppressed people........ The USA is not an honest broker.......

  • 19. 0 0
    ANC and Hamas
    • Armando Varagas
    • 24.08.07
    • 10:00

    I am sure a lot of people still remember that past American goverments supported apartheid in South africa and listed ANC (African National Congress) as a terrorist group..... so what they are doing to Hamas is nothing new..

  • 18. 0 0
    America signs on to collective punishment
    • Natallie Durson
    • 24.08.07
    • 09:53

    Year by year, the IDF has killed far more civilians than has Hamas and they do it with weapons and funding supplied by America. In the late 1940's Jewish terrorist groups such as the Stern Gang and the Irgun which operated in Palestine, were funded by charity within America. Hamas will get their weapons and support from Iran, they don't need to fund it through charity.

  • 17. 0 0
    Ex-PM Haniyeh Squeaks Again
    • Jeff Northridge
    • 24.08.07
    • 09:45

    Ismail Haniyeh the Deposed squeaks but nobody is paying him or Hamas any attention. When will these people stop firing Qassams at Israel? Rockets=no bucks and no rockets=tons of money. Is that so hard to understand? Well, maybe it is for religious fanatics who would rather martyr themselves instead of doing something to better their own lives. Please God, spare me from dedicated men.

  • 16. 0 0
    do you want the truth ?
    • Gazan
    • 24.08.07
    • 09:15

    I'm independent person and want to explain to all of you why the majority of People in Gaza and the West Bank support Hamas? Because it helps the poor and needy, provide free medicines, education, jobs, food baskets, sport and social activities, and help singles to get married. In addition to this, Hamas fulfill its promises; they are well organized and gain popularity every day because they tell the truth not like their rival Fateh who known to be collaborators work with the CIA, FBI, Shin Beit, Mossad. After all this you still wonder why people like Hamas and heat Fateh!! Fateh is corrupt and only care for their interests

  • 15. 0 0
    Power hungry Haniyeh
    • Frances
    • 24.08.07
    • 08:32

    Haniyeh says he will stay in "power". What power? Were it not for the hand-outs from all over the world Hamas would have no money. How can he be broke and in "power"? Haniyeh should stop his stupid posturing and try to make a meaningful contribution towards achieving peace on this planet. If this situation was not so serious Mr Haniyeh would be funny. What is Haniyeh in charge of? He probably finally realized that all his fighting and manipulation was for nothing. The world is obviously not scared of him nor impressed with him. Poor idiot.

  • 14. 0 0
    "American living here" ??Islam terrorises the world still
    • PETERS SM
    • 24.08.07
    • 08:09

    Nothing has chasnged for 1000 years. ? Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.[2] ? The passage originally appeared in the ?Dialogue Held With A Certain Persian, the Worthy Mouterizes, in Anakara of Galatia?[3], written in 1391 as an expression of the views of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus, one of the last Christian rulers before the Fall of Constantinople to the Muslim Ottoman Empire, on such issues as forced conversion, holy war, and the relationship between faith and reason.

  • 13. 0 0
    Dutch: Like Taking Qassams From the Mouths of Babes
    • Brad
    • 24.08.07
    • 07:44

    If the U.S. doesn't blacklist the "charity", well then its collective punishment of the Israeli civilian population. Just ask the people of Sedrot. We aren't two year olds Dutch. Hamas won an election that in effect was financed by Americans and Europeans, mostly of Islamic descent. Everyone, including the donors, knew the agenda. Putting bread into peoples mouths, not only satisfies their hunger, but inexhorably leads to loyalty. This is precisely what HAMAS sought to do through it charitable arm, that plus make it difficult to withdraw support. No different than the Hell's Angels running a legitimate business like a pharmacy that is needed in a poor neighbourhood. The scam is embarrasingly transparent. It simply took the West a long time, not to understand the scam, but to do something about it. The West understands that terror knows no bounds. Just ask Fatah or Iraqis or the many, many Islamic people who have become victims of that which they cheered when the victims were Jewish

  • 12. 0 0
    American Living There
    • Brad
    • 24.08.07
    • 07:33

    If you count restrained defence of an innocent civilian population as terror, i.e., self defence, then your right. What a twisted sense of what terror you have. That's not to say that Israeli actions do no harm. On the contrary, they do. But they are justified. There is no reason why Israel has to stand by and watch its population harrassed, maimed, kidnapped and killed. Terror involves knowingly targeting innocent civilians with a view to terrorizing a population. Sending rockets into civilian areas, indifferent to where they come down, qualifies (though they do hit kindergartens surprisingly often). I don't think there is another "state" in the world that is dedicated to the destruction of another & its people, as a formal (holy) mission, the policy of its political leadership and its conduct. The reason Hamas is so open about this is not because it has a scintilla of honesty but because it regards Jews and Israel as such low life that killing is banal. As in killing viruses.

  • 11. 0 0
    Nu, so Haniyeh slams. Haniyeh, a leader of thugs, of mass
    • Rina
    • 24.08.07
    • 06:52

    murderers who spends the little resources available under his control on the development of more Qassam rockets and mortars instead of doing so on his people, he is the one to talk. How cynical, how cynical!!!

  • 10. 0 0
    HANIYYEH protests sounds like the the decision is spot on
    • PETER.SM
    • 24.08.07
    • 06:51

    Let the Islamic countries pay for those cowards who send their children out to be killed.

  • 9. 0 0
    # 8 IF an AMERICAN, an Islamic one
    • JON FEIGENBAUM
    • 24.08.07
    • 06:49

    GLAD you're "there" and not "here" HOPE you stay there- You'll like it MUCH BETTER then the U.S.

  • 8. 0 0
    it is not a war on terror, it is a war on the Islamic
    • American living here
    • 24.08.07
    • 06:15

    religion. As to terror, America itself is the biggest terrorist state in the history of humanity.And Israel's terror is only a shadow of America's terror.

  • 7. 0 0
    Hamas Charity - Wins Award For Oxymoron Of 2007
    • Bill Foonman
    • 24.08.07
    • 05:35

    That one could even use the word charity in the same sentence as Hamas qualifies the phrase for oxymoron of the year.

  • 6. 0 0
    Disgraceful action by the US....
    • Dutch
    • 24.08.07
    • 05:34

    Disgraceful, this is like taking bread out of needy peoples' mouths. It's more collective punishment and it should be denounced as such. Dutch

  • 5. 0 0
    US decision to blaclist Hamas
    • Stan
    • 24.08.07
    • 05:22

    maybe the US should fund Hamas kids television shows especially the one with the fake mickey mouse being killed by an IDF soldier, that bills great chariter for the children like there parents have.

  • 4. 0 0
    Hamas is no different than the Bloods
    • GZLives
    • 24.08.07
    • 05:00

    "There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors." Live by the gun ... die by the gun.

  • 3. 0 0
    Haniyeh, give that thing above your neck a shake
    • Brad
    • 24.08.07
    • 04:07

    What an insight. Can't pull the wool over Haniyeh's eyes. "They imposed the siege because they did not want the Islamist example represented in Hamas to succeed in governance and politics." Well, that is startling. In a candid moment he might have added success in terror and murder is something that the U.S. wants to stop, terror and murder targeting both the Palestinian opposition and Israel, Israelies and Jews.

  • 2. 0 0
    hamas
    • Mark Katzman
    • 24.08.07
    • 03:52

    How terrible! Hamas is really a charitable organization interested in "building". Sounds like racism to me. How come the left isn't shouting-"foul"?

  • 1. 0 0
    rocket building/launching = Hamas charity work!
    • Ryan
    • 24.08.07
    • 03:47

    Like in my country and all the other civilized countries in the world...NOT A DROP OF SUPPORT, POLITICAL OR FINANCIAL, TO ANY HAMAS LINKED CHARITY OR GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL! Only to the PA!!