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| Table of Contents | ||||||
Overview |
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Le Comité de Bienfaisance et de Secours aux Palestiniens (CBSP) was founded at the beginning of the 1990s. It is registered in France as a non-profit organization collecting contributions in accordance with set rules. At its founding, its stated objective was to provide aid for the victims of the first intifada and to conduct humanitarian actions in the Palestinian Authority (PA)-administered territories. It has continued its operations during the current ongoing violent Palestinian-Israeli confrontation (2000-2005). | |||||
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In effect, the CBSP supports the institutions of Hamas’ civilian infrastructure (da’wah) in the PA-administered territories, including the organization’s terrorism-supporting infrastructure. The Muslim population in France regards the CBSP as representing Hamas there . | |||||
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The CBSP was outlawed by Israel in May 1997; because of its Hamas affiliation and the support it gave Hamas institutions, it was also declared a terrorist organization in January 1998 . As a result of the suicide bombing attack Hamas perpetrated in Jerusalem on August 19, 2003, the CBSP was designated by American Executive Order 13224 as supporting terrorism. That entailed the freezing of the bank accounts and other assets of six high-ranking members of the Hamas leadership and of five designated Hamas-affiliated “charitable” funds and foundations. | |||||
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The CBSP has four branches in France, located in Paris, Lille , Lyon and Marseilles . Like other Hamas-affiliated funds and foundations all over the globe, the CBSP collects contributions in the mosques and Islamic centers; the main sources of contributions are the Palestinians and North African communities in France. The financial support provided by the CBSP for Hamas-affiliated institutions in the PA-administered territories is estimated at millions of dollars a year . | |||||
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In 2001 the committee’s name was changed from Le Comité de Bienfaisance et de Solidarité avec la Palestine to Le Comité de Bienfaisance et de Secours aux Palestiniens (CBSP). In all probability it was an attempt to avoid inspection or to make it difficult to identify the fund’s participation in suspect activities (Not a situation unique to France: Hamas-affiliated funds and foundations in Britain and Canada have also changed their names). | |||||
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Prominent CBSP activists : | |||||
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Ahmed Oumimoun, born in 1959, has been the CBSP director (replacing Elias bin Khaled) since the second half of 2004. His address: 44, Res. Courdimanche, Les Ulis, Paris 91940. His name appeared in documents found by Israeli forces in the offices of the Jenin Charity Committee. | |||||
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Mahmoud Hussein al-Bughani was chairman of the fund until the end of the 1990s, when he was replaced by Khaled al-Shouli. Al-Bughani is a Jordanian citizen and a member of Al-Bughani family from Zarqa, a Jordanian city northeast of Amman. In December 1992, when border policeman Nissim Toledano was kidnapped and murdered by the Izzedine al-Qassam Battalions, al-Bughani was considered Hamas’ unofficial representative in France for dealing with the matter. The French government ordered him deported but he contested the order and won, continuing as CBSP chairman. | |||||
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Khaled Muhammad Ahmad al-Shouli replaced Mahmoud Hussein al-Bughani as CBSP chairman. He deals with fundraising and the distribution of Hamas publications. In November 1994 he left the Paris branch to manage the Basle branch, which was called Association de Secours Palestinien (as a designated Hamas-affiliated Swiss fund);1 he later returned to Paris. In January 2002, in an effort to supervise financial transfers to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian Authority froze Khaled al-Shouli’s transfers to Gaza’s Al-Mujamma’ al-Islami ( a “charitable society” established by the late Ahmad Yassin and outlawed by Israel in February 2002). 1. Both this fund and the CBSP were included in American Executive Order 13224, which freezes the assets of terrorist and terrorism-supporting organizations. |
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| CBSP support for the Hamas civilian infrastructure (da’wah) in the PA-administered territories |
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The CBSP supports institutions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip which belong to Hamas’ civilian infrastructure ( da’wah ). Many such institutions were outlawed by Israel and have also been recognized by the Palestinian Authority as sources of Hamas financing. | |||||
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For example, in the West Bank the CBSP supports the Bethlehem Orphan Care Society, Al-Islah Charitable Society in Ramallah-Al-Bireh, the Ramallah-Al-Bireh Charitable Society, the Jenin Charity Committee, the Hebron Islamic Association, the Hebron Young Muslims Association, the Tulkarm Charity Committee, and Al-Islah Charitable Society and the Islamic Association in the Gaza Strip . There are Hamas da’wah institutions supported by the CBSP which have not been outlawed by Israel, such as the Beit Fajar Charity Committee, the Qalqilya Charity Committee and Al-Islah Charitable Society in Bethlehem . | |||||
The CBSP and the Union of Good |
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The CBSP is an important component of the Union of Good (UG). It was one of the UG’s founders and serves as one of its fundraising addresses. | |||||
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Hamas was involved in the UG’s founding, which occurred after the outbreak of the ongoing violent Palestinian-Israeli confrontation (October 2000). It was initiated as a global ad hoc Islamic operation which was supposed to last for 101 days, raising money for the Palestinians in the PA-administered territories. However, it was so successful it incorporated and continues its activities to this day (March 2005). The UG is headed by sheikh Yussuf al-Qardawi , a popular Muslim cleric who issued a fatwa (religious Muslim edict) permitting suicide bombing attacks against Israel. Senior Hamas activists in the PA-administered territories also sit on the UG’s directorate. Its operative director is ‘Essam Yussuf , a prominent figure in Interpal , the British Hamas-affiliated fund, outlawed by Israel and included on American Executive Order 13224’s list of terrorism-supporting organizations. | |||||
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The UG is a combination of Hamas-affiliated funds and foundations and extremist Islamic funds located all over the globe. Most of the money it transfers to the PA-administered territories reaches Hamas institutions , supporting Hamas efforts to establish itself as an alternative to the Palestinian Authority and to maintain its terrorism-supporting apparatus, including the advocacy of suicide bombing attacks , as is well illustrated by documents found by Israeli forces. For that reason it was outlawed by Israel (2002) . Documents and other relevant materials show that the Palestinian Authority recognizes the UG as a Hamas supporter . | |||||
The CBPS’s connections with Interpal |
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In the past the CBSP to a certain extent was subordinate to Interpal , a Hamas-affiliated fund in Britain, through which it often transferred funds raised for the PA-administered territories. Today the CBSP operates independently, although it still cooperates with other funds and foundations in Europe which raise money for Hamas. | |||||
| French government policies and the CBSP |
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The CBSP is (with Interpal) one of the very few Hamas-affiliated funds in the West which continues its operations freely with no interference from the local authorities, while in other western countries such funds and foundations have either been closed or had their activities curtailed. For example, the Holy Land Foundation in the United States was closed in December 2001 after it was designated as a terrorism-supporting institution by American Executive Order 13224. In December 2004 the German branch of the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa Fund was closed by court order. The Dutch Al-Aqsa Fund branch was closed by local authorities in April 2003; in June of the same year it was included in the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations and prohibited from sending money to the PA-administered territories. A file was opened on the Danish branch in January 2003 and its assets were frozen. | |||||
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Even after the CBSP was designated by American Executive Order 13224 in August 2003, France announced it was not planning to take action against the organization because it was not involved in financing terrorism. In actual fact, the CBSP supports many Hamas-affiliated institutions in the PA-administered territories, including institutions which were outlawed by Israel. Its heads are in contact with high-ranking Hamas members and heads of Hamas’ civilian infrastructure, as is illustrated by the documents below. | |||||
Appendices |
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The Appendices are divided into two parts : | |||||
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Part A : Background information about Hamas’s terrorism-funding apparatus and its civilian infrastructure ( da’wah ): | |||||
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Charity (zakat) funds for terrorist activities | |||||
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A financial jihad (al-jihad bil-mal) | |||||
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An overview of the “Charitable Society” and other institutions of Hamas’ civilian infrastructure in the PA-administered territories. | |||||
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The sources of Hamas’ income. | |||||
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Part B : Examples of documents found in Hamas-affiliated institutions in the PA-administered territories dealing with the transfer of donations by the CBSP to the more important of those institutions . | |||||
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Appendix A : The CBSP transfer of funds to the Hamas-affiliated Ramallah-Al-Bireh Charity Committee . | |||||
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Appendix B : The CBSP transfer of funds to the Hamas-affiliated Jenin Charity Committee . | |||||
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Appendix C : The transfer of funds by the CBSP and other Hamas-affiliated funds and foundations to Al-Islah Charitable Society in Ramallah . | |||||
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Appendix D : The CBSP transfer of funds to the Hamas-affiliated Tulkarm Charity Committee. | |||||
