According to the website of the UK Parliament, a group of MP’s has initiated a motion to praise the UK Palestinian charity known as INTERPAL, claiming that it has been unjustly designated by the US as a terrorist organization. The motion reads as follows:
“That this House acknowledges the humanitarian work carried out for the people of Palestine by the British charity Interpal; commends the generosity of British donors to the charity; regrets that it has been denied full access to the banking system as a result of an unfounded designation by the US administration in 2003; notes that a US district court in New York saw no evidence that Interpal funded Hamas-supporting charities; further notes that the court threw out a case against NatWest Bank claiming it had knowingly facilitated Interpal’s alleged provision of money to these charities; further notes that the Treasury successfully intervened in this case; and calls on the Government to press the US administration to rescind its damaging designation of Interpal.”
According to a NEFA Foundation report, authored by the GMBDW editor, INTERPAL is perhaps the most important of the charities comprising the Union of Good, a coalition of charities headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi which helps to raise funds for Hamas. The Union of Good was banned by Israel in 2002 and in 2008 was designated a terrorist entity by the United State. INTERPAL itself had been designated by the US in 2003. Our predecessor publication has discussed the UK Charity Commisison’s order that INTERPAL sever its ties with the Union of Good, likely only a formality given that Essam Mustafa, the former head of the Union of Good is still the Managing Trustee of Interpal. In June 2011, Mustafa met with the Hamas Prime Minister of Gaza in connection with a land convoy to Gaza.The U.S. has attempted to persuade the U.K. government to do something about INTERPAL but the U.K. appears reluctant to anything which in their view would further antagonize its Muslim population.