Israeli Army Seeks to Close Schools and Orphanages - Please Help
03 Apr 08
The Israeli Army has decided to close down the Islamic Charitable Society in Hebron, Palestine. They claim that the society is linked to Hamas and channels money to terrorism but this is not true. The army has stolen a large amount of food and equipment from the Society including computers and 2 school buses. Food and bread for the orphans has been stolen also. Families who rent from the society have been evicted from their homes and many businesses have been forced to close or relocate. Schools and orphanages have been given 7 days to close from the 1st April 08.
The Islamic Charitable Society (Jumaiah Shumah Muslimeen) was founded in 1962 before the occupation of the West Bank and several years before Hamas was founded. Most of its members and employees are not members of Hamas but belong to other political organisations or none at all. The accounts are published every year and have been checked by the relevant Israeli authorities. There are no irregularities. All the money raised for charitable works has been accounted for and has gone to the purposes inteneded.
In Hebron the Society operates 3 schools and 2 orphanages. In the districts around Hebron they run another 5 schools, caring for a total of 7,000 schoolchildren and 3,000 orphans. They also extend help to a large number of desperately poor families. I have visited schools and orphanages for both boys and girls and was very impressed by what I saw there. The pupils seem very happy and the orphans are well fed. The boys’ orphanage is a very impressive new building and I shared lunch with them there. The boys were somewhat rowdy as you might expect; clearly no excessive discipline or religiosity.
The curriculum and books used in the schools are the same as those used in Palestinian state run schools. Both pupils and teachers denied that there is indoctrination or that they are taught to hate Jews. As several people pointed out it is the behaviour of the Israelis that causes people to hate them. Teachers never feed such ideas to their pupils.
The Society raises money from mosques abroad, including the US and UK. They invest much of their money in property and use the rental income for their daily expenses. The businesses and families who have been evicted have no connection to Hamas. Their only crime is that they rent property from a society with Islamic links. I visited one of my wife’s aunts. She and her three children had been given 24 hours notice to move. Her husband is working abroad and she has poor health. She had managed to find another flat but looked exhausted from the ordeal.
Two of the businesses, Mama and Pretty Woman, appealed the decision to the Israeli high court. The order to evict has been suspended but not revoked. They argued that they had spent huge amounts of their own money in refurbishing their shops and were being unduly penalised for something they have no involvement in. The threat of closure makes it hard for them to continue in business. The army has threatened to impound all the stocks of any business failing to comply with their orders.
Once again we see the Israeli army involved in collective punishment of Palestinian civil society. In any other country this would be considered a war crime and be prosecuted through international courts. It is only the powerful protection of the USA and Britain that allows Israel to get away with such blatant crimes against humanity. Please do whatever you can to pressure the Israeli government and your own government to change these inhuman policies.
