Bush Targets Palestinian Orphans: CBSP
In exclusive statements to IslamOnline.net, spokesman of Comite de Bienfaisance et de Secours aux Palestiniens, or CBSP, Youcef Benderbal said: “Bush demand that our offices be closed for financing Hamas is indeed surprising and even shocking. Everyone – especially the French authorities – knows that our efforts and donations are solely directed to charities with a defined aim of supporting the orphans and establishing development projects to benefit them.
“Our job aims at easing – as much as possible – the suffering of the Palestinian children who have no hand in the conflict on the ground, yet, they are the party that pays most dearly because of it”.
Benderbal further added that last month (July), with the help of the French authorities, “we received 17 orphans from the West Bank city of Nablus. They were offered all proper accommodation for a nice holiday in northern France of Lyle.
“The Committee has also organized continuous campaigns within the ranks of Arab and Muslim communities in France and Europe to encourage supporting the Palestinian orphans. In addition, we collect donations to finance development projects such as Olive Hope that encourages the Palestinians to plant their lands through digging wells, marketing of olive oil in Europe.”
According to Benderbal, the committee also accomplished other projects like “10,000 school bag for Palestinian children, providing hospitals with ambulances and wheelchairs for the handicapped”.
On the possibility of a French positive response to the U.S. administration’s demand of freezing the Committee’s works, Benderbal said: “The French Authorities have been closely monitoring the committee’s finances since its establishment in 1990. Had they realized any fishy activities, they would not have waited for the Americans to tell them what to do.
“Of course there may be huge U.S. pressures, but I believe the transparency of our activities and the independence of the French decision can weaken such pressures.”
“Closing the offices of the committee means depriving thousands of Palestinian orphans from the essential financial support, from studying tools, clothes…etc,” added Benderbal.
The CBSP was established in 1990, according to the French Law for Societies 1901 that enforces the monitoring of all financial dealings of charity organizations. It has three offices in Paris, Lyle and Leon and it – basically – offers aid to Palestinian orphans in the West Bank and Gaza, in addition to refugees in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
In a statement Friday, August 22, Bush said that "at my direction" the Treasury Department has moved to block and freeze the assets of the six top Hamas leaders.
They were identified as Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, Rantissi, Mussa Abu Marzouk, Khalid Mishaal, Imad al-Alami, and Osama Hamadan.
The freeze also targets five non-governmental organizations that Bush charged of providing "financial support to Hamas."
Two of the organizations are the CBSP and the Association de Secours Palestiniens (ASP) in Switzerland.
The other three are INTERPAL in Britain, the Palestinian Association in Austria, and the Sanabil Association for Relief and Development, based in Sidon , Lebanon.
The U.S. Treasury Department put the five groups on a list of "Specially Designated Global Terrorists."
