Intelligence report dealing with funds raised by Hamas activists in Israel with the aid of sheikh Ra’ed Salah for the Bethlehem Orphan Care Society and the Hamas movement in Bethlehem.
Translation
The Palestinian National Authority
Palestinian Preventive Security Headquarters
Bethlehem Directorate
In the name of Allah the all-merciful
To: Brother Lieut.-Col Abu Bashar [Majed ‘Ali Muhammad Faraj, PPS commander in Bethlehem], may Allah preserve him,
Blessing of the homeland, and to the matter at hand
In re: Hamas activity1
[My] sources have informed me that two Hamas members, Ghassan Harmass [head of the [ Bethlehem] Orphan Care Society and a senior member of Hamas leadership in Bethlehem] and Khaled Tafesh Duweib2 [senior Hamas activist in Bethlehem, arrested by Israel] initiated contacts with Umm el-Fahm mayor sheikh Ra’ed Salah. Their aim was to aid in the collection of contributions from Umm el-Fahm, Shefaram, Kafar Kara and Kafar Manda ( Nazareth district)3for the Orphan Care Society in the city [of Bethlehem].
[As a result of the meeting with the mayor of Umm el-Fahm] two groups went out [to collect money]. One [went] to Haifa, to the Great Mosque, and collected about a hundred thousand [Israeli] shekels [about $24,5000] last week. The other [group] went to the remaining areas and I don’t know how much in contributions [was collected].
[Regarding the same matter], a convention of mosque believers was held in [Area] 48 [the pre-1967 Six Day War Israeli borders] to help and to influence citizens to contribute according to their ability. The money is being collected, they say, as additional [support] for the [ Bethlehem] Orphan Care Society. To that end they bought a plot of land of 25 dunams [approximately 6.25 acres] from the Islamic Endowment Authority in the Al-T’amrah district [near Bethlehem] to establish an orphans’ village as support for the children of shaheeds [“martyrs” for the sake of Allah], prisoners and the poor.4
[The collection of contributions for] the project of building the [orphans’] village will be conducted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. I [also] witnessed another action in the [ Bethlehem] district, [collecting money] in a locked box [for] collecting contributions for the [ Bethlehem] Orphan Care Society’s bank account. There are 450 such boxes which were distributed in the [ Bethlehem] district, decorated with the picture of a small child stretching out his hand to receive a shekel.
For your information and perusal
Your brother Captain A-J5
January 7, 1999
Sector M [ Bethlehem]
[Stamp and signature:] Headquarters of Preventive Security / Bethlehem Directorate / For continued follow-up
Khaled,
Report to brother Abu Rami [Jibril Rajoub, who at the time was in charge of the PPS in the West Bank]
1. This is an intelligence report written by a lieutenant in the Palestinian Preventive Security relying on intelligence sources and meant for his commanding officer. The notes in the margin show that the Preventive Security considered the report important because it was recommended that it be passed along to Jibril Rajoub, former Preventive Security head in the West Bank.
2. Khaled Ibrahim Tafesh Duweib, senior Hamas activist in Bethlehem, served as imam of the Omar mosque where he customarily delivered sermons preaching terrorism. One of them supported the car bomb attack in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market the previous day, November 2, 2000 (two Israeli citizens killed, 11 wounded). Duweib maintained contacts with Hamas operatives.
3. Four large Arab Israeli cities.
4. The Orphans’ Village is a large, nine-story structure called the Omar bin Khutab building and is the Society’s flagship. It was planned to house 1,000 orphans, a school, clinic, kindergartens, clubhouses, libraries are recreational areas. The orphans can be expected to receive an education rich in terrorism and hatred based on the tenets of Hamas and will probably serve as a new generation of shaheeds . The building has already been constructed but as yet is only partially inhabited (January 2005).
5. Perhaps Amjad Jaber, the Bethlehem Palestinian Preventive Security officer referred to below.
Original Document
