MK Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionism party, has sent an urgent request to the Registration Authority for NGOs, demanding that the Authority open an investigation into all NGOs that are linked to the United Arab List and to the “’48 Aid” organization.
In his letter, Smotrich asks specifically for the Authority to ascertain whether ’48 Aid is breaking the law, citing “Clause 3, which states that: ‘An NGO shall not be registered as such if its purpose is to negate the existence of the State of Israel or to oppose its democratic character, or if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the NGO will serve as a cover for illegal operations.’”
“Last week,” Smotrich wrote, “journalist Ayala Hasson published an investigation that focused mainly on the close connection between the United Arab List, headed by MK Mansour Abbas, Mr. Razi Issa, head of the ’48 Aid organization (the Islamic Organization for Orphans and the Needy), and Hamas in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria; and it emerged from this investigation that the ’48 Aid organization is linked to Hamas and sends its representatives to Gaza for unknown purposes. Some of the activities of this NGO include funneling donations from areas within Israel to families of eliminated terrorists in Gaza.”
Smotrich noted that, “In the section that deals with the aims of the organization, it is written clearly that one of its goals is to ‘take determined steps in order to reach out to hundreds of children of shahids [Islamic martyrs], orphans, and widows.’ It is clear that this aim of this organization was not presented to the Registration Authority, or its application for recognition as a NGO would have been rejected.
"The association's close ties with the United Arab List party, which is a political body, are also inconsistent with the law,” Smotrich added. “As was revealed in the abovementioned investigation, Mr. Issa was a senior partner in the coalition negotiations conducted between the United Arab List and the coalition, negotiations that were also conducted in the association’s offices in Kafr Qassem and included the use of the association’s resources for political purposes.”