Spotlight on a Hamas da’wah institution in the West Bank

Appendix H
A report dealing with the transfer of $35,000 from Saudi Arabia for the Bethlehem Orphan Care Society without its informing the PA Ministry of Religious Endowments [1999].
Translation
Palestinian National Authority Preventive Security Headquarters January 17, 1999 [To:] Warrior brother Majed Faraj, head of the department [Preventive Security], Bethlehem, may Allah preserve him Blessings of the homeland, and to the matter at hand, In re: The Bethlehem Orphan Care Society Your letter of January 10, 1999, dealing with the activities of the charitable societies on the [West] Bank, it has been brought to our attention the fact that the [ Bethlehem] Orphan Care Society received the sum of $35,000 from Saudi Arabia without informing the [Palestinian] Ministry of [Religious] Endowments. We request that you thoroughly investigate the information and supply us with your results as soon as possible, since the matter is extremely important. Yours sincerely, Political Security/General Directorate Muhammad [Mustafa Muhammad] al-Jubrin [high-ranking member of the PPS in the West Bank] Received January 26, 1999 Department 4 / Lieutenant Muhammad [?] _____ Notes :
1.	This document provides additional proof that Saudi Arabia transfers financial support directly to Hamas da’wah institutions in the PA-administered territories, bypassing the PA itself. It also proves that Hamas regards those institutions, among them the Bethlehem Orphan Care Society, as its own, despite the fact that officially some of its humanitarian institutions are under the jurisdiction of the PA Ministry of Religious Endowments.
2.	Among documents found during Operation Defensive Shield (April 2002) was the correspondence between the PA and the Saudi Arabians during the first months of the ongoing violent Palestinian-Israeli confrontation (December 2000-January 2001). In one of the documents Arafat complained bitterly that Saudi Arabian financial aid was not being channeled through the PA but was transferred directly to Hamas and extremist Islamic elements connected to it in the PA-administered territories, thus weakening the Palestinian Authority. Those documents also dealt with deliberations held in Riyadh between PA representatives and the Saudi Arabians to put an end to the practice; nothing, however, came of them.
Original Document

Table of Contents

Appendix I