A secret report prepared by the European Union's Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) concludes that tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid donated by the EU to the Palestinian Authority were actually used for terrorism against Israel. Remarkably, the conclusions are based on papers that Israel discovered almost two full years ago, during Operation Defensive Shield, and which it presented to the world immediately afterwards.
The German weekly Die Welt reported this week that OLAF has finally accepted the Israeli claims that PA terror organs are using millions of EU aid dollars to subsidize terror by Fatah-Tanzim and even Hamas. OLAF representatives recently visited Israel to personally verify the authenticity of PA documents found by Israeli forces during the IDF's month-long anti-terror offensive of April 2002.
The documents, put on display in Jerusalem way back on April 11, 2002, include some with Arafat's signature approving expenses to cover terror activities for 11 different terrorist leaders. Also among them are documents showing that the Orient House - PLO headquarters in Jerusalem - served as a center for terrorist activities, payments to terrorists' families, Fatah membership forms, an itemized report on terrorist activities in Jerusalem, PA salary slips for Orient House officials, proof of ties between the PA and Israeli-Arabs, and much more.
The documents were presented to EU Commissioner Chris Patten last year, but he did not accept the Israeli conclusions. Recently, however, in response to increasing pressure from EU Parliament Members, he ordered OLAF to investigate the accusations - and they found that the documents are in fact genuine and truly prove that the humanitarian aid was diverted to terror organizations. These conclusions, not yet publicized, were reported in Die Welt.
In May 2002, the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center, which publicized the Die Welt article in English, sued the European Union for the sum of 100 million shekels in the name of the terrorism-stricken Bloomberg family of Karnei Shomron. While driving near Alfei Menashe in August 2001, the family was attacked by Palestinian terrorists - PA policemen of the Fatah-Tanzim terror gang; wife/mother Techiya was killed, while her husband Shimon (Steve) and oldest daughter Tziporah, 14 at the time, were both very seriously wounded. Steve is now wheelchair-bound, while Tzippy - a 12th-grader in the local Ulpanah (girls' high school) - can walk only with great difficulty and uses a wheelchair most of the time. The family has four other children: Noam, Shira, Yisrael and Haggai.
Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat HaDin and the family's legal counsel for the suit, explains that the EU closed its eyes to the true use of the money it supplied to the PA, knowing that it was being used for terrorism. The suit makes clear that Israel warned the EU more than once that its money was being misused. The total amount of EU money to the PA since 1994 surpasses $1.5 billion.
"The OLAF report must be publicized immediately," Darshan-Leitner says, "and the EU aid to the Palestinian Authority must cease as well. If not for the reckless EU funding to the PA, hundreds of Israeli victims would still be alive, and thousands more would not have had to suffer their wounds. European taxpayers must recognize that they sponsored Palestinian terrorism, and they must recompense its victims."
OLAF has not denied the Die Welt report, but rather protested its publication as based on "secret information," and said that the investigation into the PA spending is continuing.
The German weekly Die Welt reported this week that OLAF has finally accepted the Israeli claims that PA terror organs are using millions of EU aid dollars to subsidize terror by Fatah-Tanzim and even Hamas. OLAF representatives recently visited Israel to personally verify the authenticity of PA documents found by Israeli forces during the IDF's month-long anti-terror offensive of April 2002.
The documents, put on display in Jerusalem way back on April 11, 2002, include some with Arafat's signature approving expenses to cover terror activities for 11 different terrorist leaders. Also among them are documents showing that the Orient House - PLO headquarters in Jerusalem - served as a center for terrorist activities, payments to terrorists' families, Fatah membership forms, an itemized report on terrorist activities in Jerusalem, PA salary slips for Orient House officials, proof of ties between the PA and Israeli-Arabs, and much more.
The documents were presented to EU Commissioner Chris Patten last year, but he did not accept the Israeli conclusions. Recently, however, in response to increasing pressure from EU Parliament Members, he ordered OLAF to investigate the accusations - and they found that the documents are in fact genuine and truly prove that the humanitarian aid was diverted to terror organizations. These conclusions, not yet publicized, were reported in Die Welt.
In May 2002, the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center, which publicized the Die Welt article in English, sued the European Union for the sum of 100 million shekels in the name of the terrorism-stricken Bloomberg family of Karnei Shomron. While driving near Alfei Menashe in August 2001, the family was attacked by Palestinian terrorists - PA policemen of the Fatah-Tanzim terror gang; wife/mother Techiya was killed, while her husband Shimon (Steve) and oldest daughter Tziporah, 14 at the time, were both very seriously wounded. Steve is now wheelchair-bound, while Tzippy - a 12th-grader in the local Ulpanah (girls' high school) - can walk only with great difficulty and uses a wheelchair most of the time. The family has four other children: Noam, Shira, Yisrael and Haggai.
Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat HaDin and the family's legal counsel for the suit, explains that the EU closed its eyes to the true use of the money it supplied to the PA, knowing that it was being used for terrorism. The suit makes clear that Israel warned the EU more than once that its money was being misused. The total amount of EU money to the PA since 1994 surpasses $1.5 billion.
"The OLAF report must be publicized immediately," Darshan-Leitner says, "and the EU aid to the Palestinian Authority must cease as well. If not for the reckless EU funding to the PA, hundreds of Israeli victims would still be alive, and thousands more would not have had to suffer their wounds. European taxpayers must recognize that they sponsored Palestinian terrorism, and they must recompense its victims."
OLAF has not denied the Die Welt report, but rather protested its publication as based on "secret information," and said that the investigation into the PA spending is continuing.