Professing
to be “a non-political, non-religious enterprise whose aspirations
are purely humanitarian” and “not connected with any militant”
causes, the Gaza-based
Palestine Children's Welfare Fund (PCWF)
seeks
“to improve the living standards of the children ... in
the refugee camps inside Palestine”—specifically,
by providing them with “better educational opportunities, health
facilities and a bright future without violence, hatred and
discrimination.”
NGO
Monitor confirms that PCWF, which derives most of its income from donations
by individual supporters, has indeed “provided
hundreds of children and orphans with scholarships and medical care
in times of crisis.” For example:
* PCWF's Union
of Health Workers Committees project “provides medical
services to needy children in Gaza and all other Palestinian cities”;
recruits “experienced medical personnel to go to Gaza and other
Palestinian cities to work and train the existing staff and provide
professional and moral support” on a volunteer basis; and solicits
donations of medical equipment and supplies, ambulances, medicine,
and any material relevant to the operation of emergency rooms and
hospitals.
* Through
PCWF’s “Sponsor a
Child” program, which is coordinated by the Holy
Land Trust, donors send $10 per month to help pay for a given
Palestinian child’s food, education, clothing, and medical care.
* In
January 2002, PCWF initiated a “Book
Campaign”
to collect donated educational books, videos, cassettes, and software
for Palestinian students of all ages, particularly in the fields of
mathematics, natural science, and social studies.
But “these services,”
NGO Monitor observes, “are conducted in a politicized environment” whose
hallmarks
are “extremist anti-Israel political and ideological activities”
that “serv[e] only to advance a culture of violence and hatred,”
and thereby “promote
the conflict” between Arabs and Israelis.
For instance, one
PCWF program that sells embroidery
and clothing fashioned by Palestinian women in order to raise funds for the
necessities of life in Gaza and the West Bank, has been known to
sell t-shirts inscribed with poetry written in praise of suicide
bombers.
In
2002, PCWF sponsored a drawing
contest for children aged six through fourteen, entitled Why
I Love Palestine. Almost
without exception, the judges in this competition rewarded entries that
conveyed an unambiguously violent hatred of Israel. The overall winner
was a picture of a bonfire, in the shape of a map of Israel and bearing a
Palestinian
Authority logo, consuming the Israeli flag and its Star of David.
Another entry showed a Palestinian flag dropping flames onto an
Israeli flag and immolating a number of Jews in its vicinity.
To
help finance the education of Palestinian children, PCWF has
established a Rachel
Corrie Scholarship Fund in honor of its namesake, a young
International
Solidarity Movement volunteer who was accidentally killed in
April 2003 while attempting to interfere with Israeli anti-terror
activities.
PCWF praises
the Palestinian-American rapper Iron Shiek as a “brilliant
… artist/activist” whose “bold and insightful rap-style
challenges traditional views on Palestinians.” On occasion, the Fund has
used Iron Shiek's CDs for fundraising purposes. But the music
of this rapper features lyrics maintaining that Israel's influence in the
Palestinian territories is far more objectionable than are suicide
bombings; asserting that Israel has imposed a system of "apartheid" on the Palestinians; and
graphically describing Iron Shiek's personal desire to physically assault
former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
PCWF
has identified Rabbis for Human Rights and the Union of Health Workers
Committees in Gaza as two of its “Affiliated Groups.” The former
has experienced a rift
in recent years between those of its members who seek to concentrate on
humanitarian issues, and those who wish to emphasize condemnations of
Israeli policies. The
latter organization has accused
Israel of maliciously destroying Palestinian ambulances without cause
(making no mention of the Palestinians' frequent use of ambulances to
covertly transport terrorists into Israel).
In April 2006, PCWF director Riad
Hamad filed a defamation suit against NGO Monitor, Frontpage Jerusalem, the Center for Study of
Popular Culture and others, charging that those organizations had defamed
him by suggesting that he and his
charity were tied to Islamic terrorism. On January 17, 2007, a Texas Federal Court judge dismissed
the lawsuit as “wholly frivolous,” “baseless,” and “groundless.”
Calling Hamad‘s complaint “an unintelligible morass of vitriolic
accusations” that had “no basis in law,” the judge ordered the plaintiff
to pay the defendants’ attorney’s fees (totaling almost $60,000) plus a
$1,000 fine to each defendant.
PCWF
was founded by Bob
Rossi, who,
along with Margaret
Stephens,
co-founded the Northwest
Ethnic Voice,
a now-inactive Oregonian newsletter. Another notable individual affiliated with PCWF is the organization's former director, Sami
Awad, who went on to become the executive director of the Holy
Land Trust.
On
April 17, 2008, PCWF director Riad
Hamad was
found dead,
with duct tape binding his hands and covering his mouth, in an East Austin, Texas lake. Police
called the death suspicious, but family and other
sources told investigators that it was likely a suicide.
