Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development

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The Holy Land Foundation was an Islamic charity in the United States and claimed to be the largest in that country. It was formerly known as Occupied Land Fund.[1] It was designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union and U.S., and shut down by the U.S. government.

The organization's web site stated, "Our mission is to find and implement practical solutions for human suffering through humanitarian programs that impact the lives of the disadvantaged, disinherited, and displaced peoples suffering from man-made and natural disasters." Their primary area of focus was with the Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories. They have also provided support to victims after disasters and wars in Bosnia, Kosovo, Turkey, and in the United States (Iowa floods, Texas tornadoes, and the Oklahoma City bombing).

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[edit] Terrorism charges

In December 2001, the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control designated Holy Land Foundation as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.[2] It has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the European Union [3]

Among the founders of the Holy Land Foundation is Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, a political leader of Hamas, who provided substantial funds to the Holy Land Foundation in the early 1990s. In 1994, Marzook (who was named a Specially Designated Terrorist by the Treasury Department in 1995) designated HLF as the primary fund-raising entity for Hamas in the United States. He was deported from the United States to Jordan in 1997. Marzook was indicted on August 20, 2004 by a United States federal grand jury in Chicago, Illinois. He and two other individuals have been charged with a 15 year conspiracy to raise funds for terrorist attacks against Israel.

The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development was designated (December 4, 2001 and re-designated on May 31, 2002) under Executive Orders 13224[4] and 12947[5] as a charity that provided millions of dollars of material and logistical support to Hamas. HLF, originally known as the Occupied Land Fund, was established in California in 1989 as a tax-exempt charity. In 1992, HLF relocated to Richardson, Texas. It had offices in California, New Jersey, and Illinois, and individual representatives scattered throughout the United States, the West Bank, and Gaza. In the year 2000 alone, HLF raised over $13 million. HLF supported Hamas activities through direct fund transfers to its offices in the West Bank and Gaza that are affiliated with Hamas and transfers of funds to Islamic charity committees ("zakat committees") and other charitable organizations that are part of Hamas or controlled by Hamas members. HLF funds were used by Hamas to support schools that served Hamas ends by encouraging children to become suicide bombers and to recruit suicide bombers by offering support to their families. [6]

In December 2001, the assets of the organization were frozen by the FBI and Treasury agents. Treasury officials conceded that a "substantial amount" of the money raised goes to worthy causes, but insisted that Holy Land's primary purpose has been to subsidize Hamas. Repeated appeals to the courts by the Holy Land Foundation to have the freeze lifted have failed.

On July 27, 2004, a federal grand jury in Dallas, Texas, returned a 42 count indictment against the Holy Land Foundation. [7] Charges include: conspiracy, providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, tax evasion and money laundering. The indictment alleges that the Holy Land Foundation provided more than $12.4 million to individuals and organizations linked to Hamas from 1995 to 2001, when their asset were frozen. The indictment also names specific officers of the Holy Land Foundation: president Shukri Abu Baker; chairman, Ghassan Elashi; and executive director, Haitham Maghawri and four others: Mohammad el-Mezain, Akram Mishal, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulraham Odeh. Five of the seven have been arrested. Maghawri and Mishal have not been found and are considered fugitives.

The Holy Land Foundation claims the Federal Bureau of Investigation falsified evidence and "fabricated a case" against it in an effort to show that it financed Palestinian suicide-bombers. It denies all charges made against it.

In December, 2004, a federal judge in the U.S. city of Chicago ruled that the Holy Land Foundation (along with the Islamic Association of Palestine and the Quranic Literacy Institute) was liable for a $156 million dollar lawsuit for aiding and abetting the terror group Hamas in the death of a 17-year-old American citizen called David Boim. [8]

[edit] Related groups

Mr. Ghassan Elashi, HLF chairman, is among the founders of the Texas branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Texas). Mr. Elashi was also vice president of InfoCom Corporation of Richardson, Texas, indicted along with Hamas' Marzook.[9] InfoCom, an Internet company shared personnel, office space, and board members with the HLF. The two organizations were formed in California around the same time, and both received seed money from Hamas leader Marzook.[10] InfoCom also maintained the web sites for HLF and IAP. [11]

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. was founded by former members of the Hamas front organization Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP), with funding from HLF. The Anti-Defamation League states that the HLF is a daughter organization of IAP. [12] [13]

[edit] See also

[edit] External references

[edit] External links

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