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Financial aid from Interpal to renovate the “Shaheeds’ Mosque” in the Dehaishe refugee camp (south of Bethlehem) through its Hamas-run “charity committee”
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The following two documents were found (January 20, 2004) in the offices of the Ramallah-Al-Bireh Charity Committee, one of Hamas’ leading institutions in the Ramallah area in particular and the West Bank in general. The mosque in the pictures is called “The Shaheeds’ Mosque” and is located in the Dehaishe refugee camp, south of Bethlehem. It was renovated by the Dehaishe Charity Committee with help from Interpal (as written on the sign hung on the mosque’s turret). |
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Many posters commemorating shaheeds can be seen on the mosque’s lower walls, a popular method used by the Palestinian terrorist organizations to identify with dead terrorists and to turn them into role models for young Palestinians. The Dehaishe mosque is known as the base of operations for sheikh ‘Abd al-Majid ‘Ata Muhammad al-‘Amarneh, a high-ranking Hamas member in Bethlehem and a member of the Dehaishe Charity Committee.1As previously noted, most of the mosques in the PA-administered territories are under Hamas influence and are centers of anti-Israeli (and in several instances, anti-American) incitement and recruiting grounds for terrorists (Israeli security forces have often found wanted terrorists and weapons in them).
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The sheikh was arrested and imprisoned in 2003. He is a leading Hamas activist and customarily fills his sermons with anti-Israel propaganda. He serves as the mosque’s imam, is a member of the Dehaishe Charity Committee and of the refugee camp’s administration.
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The Hamas-affiliated Dehaishe Charity Committee was founded in the early 1990s. It focuses on social and “educational” activities, which take place under the sponsorship of the “shaheeds’ mosque” and Al-Nasr mosque. The shaheeds’ mosque, from which the Society mainly operates, serves as a Qur'an memorization center and also runs a kindergarten. A Palestinian Preventive Security document found by Israeli forces during Operation Defensive Shield (April 2002) noted that the Committee is run by four Hamas activists, the most senior of whom is sheikh Omar Muhammad Yussuf al-Effendi of Dehaishe.2 The Committee is supported by a number of funds and foundations in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and the West, among them Interpal.
2. Arrested by Israeli security forces on suspicion of being involved in terrorist attacks, may 29, 2002. |
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Palestinian Preventive Security noted the Dehaishe Charity Committee on its list of Hamas institutions in the Bethlehem area which received financial donations from abroad (See Appendix F (1)). |
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It has recently been reported that sheikh Omar Muhammad Yussuf al-Effendi has been appointed Mufti (interpreter of Muslim religious law who is qualified to issue binding Islamic religious edicts relating to all facets of life) of the Bethlehem district. |
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Pictures of the renovation of the Shaheeds’ Mosque (found in Ramallah-Al-Bireh Charity Committee offices, January 20, 2004). |
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