tv Palestine Declassified PRESSTV January 27, 2024 9:02pm-9:31pm IRST
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hello, i'm chris williamson and you're watching palestine declassified. we're the only weekly tv show focusing on investigating and exposing the israeli regime's global war against solidarity with the illegally occupied people of palestine. in this week's show, we'll be delving into the dubious activities of number of british charities who've been raising funds for israeli soldiers engaged in genocide in gaza. we'll be asking some probing questions about why the charity commission hasn't intervened. when its role is to make sure that charities fulfill their legal obligations and are accountable for their actions. the commission has a statutory duty to investigate concerns identified in the administration and running of charities, yet there's no evidence of a acting its obligations in these cases. the tef aro chakra has been looking into which charities are involved and some of the prominent individuals associated with them. the association for israel's soldiers. is
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based in occupied palestine and claims to be the soul avenue through which donations can be made directly to iof soldiers and iof units. these donations come from zionists in in palestine as well as from the us, canada, brazil, mexico, france, and the uk. the uk friends of the association for the well-being of israel soldiers is a registered charity which is obliged by law to show public benefit. its charitable objectives include relief of and suffering, advancement of education and provision of facilities for recreation of the occupation forces. guidance published by the charity commission states that it is legal requirement that any detriment or harm that results from charitable purposes must not outway the benefit. perhaps supporting genocide outways those purposes. amongst the trustees of the charity are colonel richard kemp, a former british soldier said to have hateful views. of
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on islam and muslims. in december, the bbc was criticized for interviewing kemp without reference to his role as a uk aviss trusty. in one recent interview with a pro israel blog, kemp was quoted as describing the killing of civilians in ghazza as necessary. palestine declassified has traced around 20 charities which have donated to uk avis over the last 15 years. the following are notable donors: gerald and gail ronson family foundation. which was created by gerald ronson, the convicted fraudster, who runs the rontech company, operating over 250 bp and so service stations in the uk. ronson also set up the community security trust that runs of point of the zionist regime in the uk. though one of its charitable objectives mentions opposing extremism, this is yet another example showing that ronson in reality supports extremism and genocide. lofter's
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charitable trust set up by the loft family, which made its money from the watch making firm acurist. it also funds the extremist zionist sect shabad lebovic, islamophobic think tanks, jewish supremacist groups in east jerusalem and the community security trust. david and ruth lewis family charitable trust set up by the lewis family which own river island clothing chain. the charity also funds islamophobic think tank and illegal. settlements in east jerusalem, the family foundations trust set up by the uk property investor richard mince. the charity has funded the extremist sect shabad lebavic, islamophobic think tanks and the community security trust. richard's son and charity trustee, joshua, co-founded the website friend a soldier, an online platform where soldiers can become digital ambassadors. avis is already under investigation. by the uk
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charity regulator, the charity commission. the investigation should widen to include the nexus of genocide supporting charities we have revealed. they should be shut down by the charity commission. as always, we're joined by our resident expert david miller. david's an academic and a former professor at bristol university and is now a non-resident senior research fellow at the center of islam and global affairs at istanbul ziam university. he's also a co-director of the lobby and watch dog spinwatch and is a leading british scholarly critic of israel. and i'm pleased to welcome back masud shajara who's our guest contributor today. masud is the chair of the islamic human rights commission and is veteran human rights campaign. "it was actually key driving force behind the creation of the islamic human rights commission back in 1997. welcome to the show. david, latifa referred to the association for the well-being of israely soldiers, didn't she in in her report there, i mean, what exactly does the money that it raises pay for? well, it says that it's there
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to um relief to give need, where there's need in suffering, of course, whether the suffering has been..." caused by the occupation forces or not is obviously key question, but they they provide all sorts of things for them, they provide leasure facilities, they provide uh swimming pools for them, gym facilities, synagogues, and also they have an enlistment festival, so they have this kind of rock festival where they all dance around and sing songs presumably about uh wiping out the people of gaza, so they're there to help the genocide in gaza and the the money. it goes from from them and from the other organizations in different countries, millions and millions of pounds, yeah every year goes to support effectively the killing of children in gaza. mean, what sanctions do you think this charity should face then? well, according to the principles of charity commission, uh, it
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is unlawful to raise charity funds for any armed forces except the british armed forces, right? and but it it - "the fact also is that this particular genocide which is taking place, you can't really support this genocide any way under international law, but we go one step even further than that, the charity commission always ask a question, how could you justify this particular project is charitable? how could for god's sake be charitable to raise funny?" " font to give to genocidal armed forces which in the last three months has killed 25 to 30000 people, 70% of them women and children. i mean, how could you justify such a thing to be charitable? you know, um, these charities,
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and there is a whole spectral of about them, they claim that they're addressing the needs the idf. based on idf's sort of requirement, so they're really basically serving the israeli defense worlds, this illegal occupier, this apartite army, this sort of army which is committing the greatest genocide of our time, how could this be charitable, how could anyone get tax relief indeed for for killing and committing genocide, well it certainly seems like an abuse doesn't? but i mean david latifa mentioned um some of the charities that are supporting the genocide by donating to this association for the well-being of israeli soldiers, but i mean there's a longer list isn't than the list that uh the tefa well she mentioned in in in particular some details
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about three or four of the charities but we've some 20 different charities all of which are associated with signs families the set up these family foundations based on the wealth from the business. as they've been involved in, yeah, and so this is a quite wide spread practice, i mean there are there are there are literally millions and millions of pounds every year going into these kinds of charities and the spending them are all sorts of projects uh and of course you what you find is that they they tend to uh to fund yes they fund the idf the israeli occupation forces as we should call them but they also will fund illegal settlements and and the community security trust and indeed of course in many cases islamophobic. think tank so you've almost got a kind of zinus funding bingo situation going on there where you you you get all of them these charities actually a full house for every charity almost that they have this big range of different of the funds going to different places and you can see that that that's what their aim is the
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link that there is between those different sorts of funding recipients is is very interesting sure um the islamic human rights commissions made a comp about another charity hasn't it, just just say few words about that, will you? well, this is umbrella which enables many charities both in this country and overseas to plug in. and raise fund for variety of things and they're doing number of them are raising funds for israeli defense force. in 2015 we made a complaint to charity commission regarding this particular project, they were raising money for idf and they were raising money for a glove which the trigger finger could be removed so they could shoot and kill people easily. andraeli soldiers were actually banking and saying, thank you very much, because we are able to kill people better, and more effective, and we made a
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complaint, the complaint was investigated internally without any reports and and basically the stopped on the back of their hands and the whole thing is continuing. we made a more extensive report complaint now, showing videos that they are packing, bulletproof jackets, you knives is... and i'm sending it to israeli defense forces and thanking people, israeli defense force, thanking the donors for supporting them in current genocidal acts and genocide that is taking place, and we i just received the letter that they are investigating, but i won't hold my breath, because over and over investigation of these institutions is one standard and... investigation of everything else in like muslim charities in in you know
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you can't organize a demonstration uh because charity commission says how could that be sort of uh accepted as a charitable and you bring in disrepute but you could actually find a genocidal army to kill people incredible under the guys under the guise of of charit charitable person yeah i want i want to highlight one thing mean the charity commission uh the whole procedure of parcharity commission was changed when showcraft was put in charge yeah, mean i mean really that yeah yeah that that is when we saw very clearly and we getting lot of reports and complaints it really sort of became more islamophobic and became institution that actually enables um to have double the standard and give green light to let me just bring it very very very quick. because we're going to go to another report now, but is there any precedent david for for challenging zanish charities in the uk? well
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absolutely is, assoed has been saying the they themselves have have challenged back to 2015, i think, but but going way back, there's been you know all sorts of investigations of science charities, even back to the 1930s, the jewish national fund, it was a long-running investigation went up to parliament, house of lords was involved, so there is there is a conclusion of these, well the they they usually... resulted in for example the jewish national fund is now is now allowed to function, it has most recently had another investigation because of the islamophobic statements of its of some of its directors, but it continues to function, so they haven't been removed, right? okay, well let just take pause there for moment because we want to look at our next report now about a zinish charity that's flagrantly disregarding the meaning of charitable purpose. zinus occupation forces are provided. with millions in funding every year from charities in the uk run by zainast jews and their non-jewish supporters. these
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charities are almost holy unknown. palestine declassified has on earth new details on one these charities called bait halokam. it is dedicated to raising money for what it calls our heroes who have fought to protect israel, meaning members of the genocidal occupation forces currently engaged in mass killings in gaza and throughout palestine. charitable objectives of the charity include the relief of adverse physical and mental effects suffered by individuals in israel. it doesn't say so explicitly, but it is clear that the individuals noted do not include palestinian civilians. as bed halokam says, it name literally means house of warriors. this racism in application of its public benefit is one reason why this charity should be shut down by the uk. charity commission, another is that it violates the harm principle, the harm of supporting genocide clearly outways
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the benefits of rehabilitation of injured genocides. the chairman of the charity is andrew wolfson, of the hugely wealthy wolfson family. the family is best known for its ownership of the next retail empire. wolfson also runs the charles wolfson charitable trust, which has donated over 600 thousand to beit halokam since 208. the charity also helps to encourage racism against muslims by funding islamophobic think tanks such as civitas and policy exchange, it also funds the jerusalem foundation which is directly engaged in settlement activity and ethnic cleansing east al-quds, jerusalem. palestine declassified research reveals that the bait haloham receives funds and support from range of other zinis family foundations, including the pears, bloston, denise cohen, ronson, and the excelart foundations or trust. the pierce
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foundation is run by the peers brothers once voted worst landlords in the uk. their charity also fun. islamophobic think tanks and the extreme qabad sect. the elixarks foundation is run by davidure, the property magnet. his foundation also funds islamophobic think tanks and the ethnic cleansing east hoods. among the testimonials on the charity website is one from ian austin, the extreme zianist who has displayed a profile picture on x, referring to gaza with the words, let israel finish the job. there are also tributes from the board of deputies, the chief rabbi and even israel settler supporting extremist ambassador to the uk zippy hotivly. overall, beid khalokam is devoted to supporting the genocidal israel occupation forces in gaza in what appears to be breaches of the uk charity law. palestine declassified will pass the evidence we have
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on earth to the charity commission. mud, i mean, you think there is need for a... for a wider effort from the palestine solidarity movement to reveal, target and dismantle these charities as part of the, the boycott divestment and sanctions campaign, absolutely, i, i, i think the sort of the double standard, which is been implemented very unapologetically by the charity commission needs to be challenged, and we need to sort of see why is it that overwhelming majority of organizations? and charities we investigated are muslim ones and not anyone else and why that double standard there and indeed many of muslim charities have had overall managers put in charge and the control taken away from the trustees we want to see this happening especially those charities which repeatedly have been sort of
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involved in doing unlawful activities and i think we need to demand that those trustees in these charities, which are very few, sharing the trusteeship of different charities, need to be removed and bar from becoming a charity for some future years, i think anything less than that is just a white wash, it just proves that the government uh is putting pressure on charity commission implement this double standards, yeah david, i mean the wolfson family. seemed to be a really significant element don't the in organizing support for genocide? yes, now this is again, this is not widely norm, people in in the palestine solidarity movement, they talk about boycotting mcdoralds or coca-cola, but look, the wolfson family is absolutely central to some of this to b to yes to funding islamophobic think tanks and also in in the way of zinas bingo,
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they're also funding settlements and also funding the israel occupation forces, which of course that's been all know are engaged in genocide. as we speak, and of course the wolfson family are are run the retailer next, not usually a subject of boycott, for the bds movement, but it really should be, i mean like like like other retail firms like river island which again is run by uh zines family, the's family, these should be top of the list for for bds because they're actively involved in supporting genocide, no indeed and lot more information needs to be imparted, i think to to to the public about this because lot of people just will not be uh... aware of it, but just i wonder whether you could tell us what you make of the the data that we've revealed about donors supporting the occupation forces and the legal settlements as as well as promoting islamophobia. yeah, there's been a lot of research done, not so much in britain, but in united state, which is easier to get the freedom of information,
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and uh, that huge number of islamophobic institutions are being funded by. designist, yeah, and uh, you know, this is unfortunately uh, it's something that is very well known among the activists and so forth, but again we need to use the boycotting to put pressure on these institution, and indeed we need to put pressure on the charity commission and others to stop sort of having this double standard, henry jackson society is is is a menace, yes, for freedom of speech, for for any aspect of principles that we all adheere to, but nevertheless is actually allowed to commit these islamophobic and racist. policies yes indeed and building on the point that um was making there david, just tell us a bit will you about the the pairs and exalar foundations or exalar foundations, yes so i
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mean these are again another two we've already covered quite a lot of different science foundations in the show so far so the peers foundation uh william peers property company voted by by a bbc show some years ago as the worst landlords in the country living up to the stereotype of the jewish landlord, i mean that's the most extraordinary thing about this, and then exalachs again, property magnate, davidur, who who runs this exalarks foundation, strangely named foundation, and all both of them give to to the occupation forces, both of them give to islamophobic think tanks and both of them give to active ethnic cleansing east jerusalem, so we're faced with a situation where it's not just these charities which are giving money to the occupation forces, but also all the the the charities and foundation. which give money to them, which need to be looked at, so there's a real case for looking at pears and at excels and the rulesson foundation, etc. and saying, look, these are organizations which
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do not fill fulfill a public benefit which where the harms they're causing by contributing to genocide way the any benefits that they might give in the provision of swimming pools for example to the occupation forces, indeed. mean, how will the islamic human rights foundation be engaging with these issues in in the? future, well, we are making complaint according to all the investigation that we do, and and the fact of the matter is that i i think the standards needs to be implemented without any double standards and hypocrisy. one of the issues that the charity commission always uses against the pro- palestinian or muslim charities is that they saying that certain action of them is bringing the charity. to distribute now, for god's sake, how could not be the case that supporting a genocidal armed forces, yeah, it's it's bringing a charity to
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distribute, you know, this standards needs to be based on the standards that we all at here, not just couple of zinist entities who are seem to be implementing these policies and david, mean you know obviously these charity... be targeted, clearly, i think that's it's pretty obvious, but what about the donors to these charities? i mean, shouldn't they be targeted as well? well, we've already listed huge number in in in this uh episode, there are tons more which could have be could be looked at, there are other charities giving money to the occupation forces and it's about time that there were systematic complaints against probably scores of uh british zionist charities which are giving money to uh to ethnic cleansing, to genocide and and to support islamophobia in this country and in other countries, none of these are public benefits, all of these, the the dis benefits, the harms outway the benefits, and so there's
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a case for actually, you know, at least sanctioning if not closing down really our wide slow of these large zionist family foundations, yeah, and very briefly mud, because we're almost out of time, but the islamic human rights commission has been targeted with complaints, as indeed many other muslim charities have been targeted, i mean, why do you think that is? very briefly, well first of all, the charitable wing of ihrc has been targeted, and and indeed many messages, over the last three months we had huge number of charities coming to us and asking for help because they're being targeted, because they are being pro palestine and variety of thing, the standard that the charity commission using in these cases is completely different. it's almost like aleson wonderland, it really is crazy, with designist charities, what they come to an understanding is to create a little few
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boxes that you could take, and that covers them uh, you know, for the dispute, and what muslim charities, the interpal, the you know other charities are being vigorously attacked day in day out, indeed, well, unfortunately we are going to have to leave that across. out of time again, so let me thank our guest masojara and of course our resident expert professor david miller. palestine declassified, we'll be back next week with more forensic investigations and analysis. but in the meantime, please share today's program on your social media platforms to help us continue growing our audience, and remember you can follow the show on facebook, twitter and telegram where we post regular clips and updates. so until next time, this is chris williamson saying bye for now.
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since mid november 2023, the yemen-based anseral movement has attacked dozens of commercial ships destined to the occupied territories. the tacks have practically halted commercial activities in the port de vilat and the occupied territories. i think that that shipping companies uh we will not rush uh back to the uh red sea. uk have militarized the region with their strikes on yemen, exidus of shipping companies from the region now threads to scuttle supply chains and increase consumer prices. well, definitely there will be some influence on inflation. i mean, it's a little difficult at this stage to to predict how much of a jump in inflation. the us militarizing the red sea and the global economic impact in this edition of economic divide. germany has
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first to be headlines: hundreds of palestinians are killed on fresh israeli strikes on gaza, one day after the international court of justice ordered israel to take steps to prevent acts of genocide. iran says the rolling by international court of justice. the israely war in gaza is better proof of international crimes, including genocide committed in gaza, and lebanon's resistance targets in israely military base and shabot farms using a new type of missile.
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