World Vision asked to stop funding NGO

October 11, 2012 Agencies
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World Vision Australia has until Monday to stop funding a Palestinian NGO that is allegedly linked to a terror group…otherwise Shurat Hadin, the Israel Law Centre, will launch legal proceedings in an Australian court.

Akiva Hamilton

That’s the ultimatum issued by Akiva Hamilton, a Sydney-born solicitor for Shurat HaDin, who wrote last Sunday to World Vision Australia’s chief executive, Tim Costello, ordering the Christian charity to stop funding the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) by October 15 or face a law suit in the Federal Court for breaching the Charter of the United Nations Act, which prohibits funding a proscribed organisation.
Shurat HaDin claims that World Vision, which has distributed more than $1 million in Gaza from the government’s foreign aid arm AusAID, has been breaching the law because it has funded the UAWC.
Shurat HaDin claims the UAWC “was established by, is controlled by, shares assets with and operated in concert with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine”.
The PFLP is responsible for countless terror attacks against Israel since

The Rev Tim Costello

the 1970s.
But World Vision Australia denies the charges. In a statement AusAID said an investigation it conducted in May concluded there was “no evidence” that Shurat HaDin’s allegations were true.
World Vision and AusAID claim UAWC is also legally registered as an Israeli NGO and that its Jerusalem-based branch is registered with the Israeli Ministry of Justice.
But Hamilton contends that the Israeli-registered organization is called the Committee of Agricultural Work, which he claims in a dossier is a totally different outfit to the UAWC.
The dispute was first aired in February when Shurat HaDin sent its dossier to AusAID. World Vision chief executive Tim Costello wrote to Shurat HaDin again late last month, saying the organisation had “no interest in supporting terrorism”.
“I can assure you that if such evidence [of ties to the PFLP] is forthcoming, we will not hesitate to act swiftly upon it,” Costello wrote.
He did, however, admit that “some remnants of the historical relationship” between UAWC and PFLP remain.
“But to suggest that UAWC is an arm of the PFLP today and somehow controlled by it appears to us a gross over-statement,” he wrote. “We believe that UAWC is a bona fide Palestinian agricultural development entity and … that it operates independently of the PFLP.”
On Monday, World Vision released a statement saying it is “disappointed” that Shurat HaDin is threatening legal action but that its position remains unchanged.
“Many claims have been made linking individuals – asserted to be UAWC board members – to the PFLP and that the UAWC is established and controlled by the PFLP,” the statement said. “These claims are disputed, but ultimately none of these claims are themselves evidence that funding from World Vision is being used to support the PFLP.”

Comments

2 Responses to “World Vision asked to stop funding NGO”
  1. michael says:

    The Line between Australia’s Jewish Leftist,Progressives and the Palestinian / Arabs has almost merged.
    There is very little difference in their worldly views on the ‘Mudlle’ East.

    Burdy

  2. Rachel says:

    It’s real chutzpah for Rev Tim Costello to say that he is a “strong supporter of Israel”. The evidence shows the contrary.

    There is ample evidence that Tim Costello and World Vision is actively involved in assisting the propaganda machine of Friends of Palestine. See letter Costello wrote in support of a Gaza “art exhibition” where anti Israel offesive propaganda materials distributed – organised by Friends of Palestine, Sonya Karka, including paintings by the notrorious anti Semite Australian -not Palestinian – Dora McPhee and financed by Australian Major Issue and Theology Foundation:
    http://www.thought-full.info/Life%20in%20Gaza%20Today.pdf

    And is a prominent member of SABEEL Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, http://www.sabeel.org.au/patrons.html headquartered in Jerusalem, which is a Christian anti Israel organisation operating world wide to delegitimise and dehumanise the Jewish State and to influence Western Churches to take anti Israel policies such as BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, and SANCTION.

    Jewish Political Studies Review 23:1-2 (Spring 2011) wrote a comprehensive paper on Sabeel – Updating the Ancient Infrastructure of Christian Contempt: SabeelDexter Van Zile, April 14, 2012
    http://jcpa.org/article/updating-the-ancient-infrastructure-of-christian-contempt-sabeel/

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