Gazans Rally İn Solidarity With Jailed Charity Employee

Gazan employees of an international charity organization staged a demonstration on Tuesday to show solidarity with a colleague arrested last year by Israel for allegedly aiding Hamas.



In June of last year, the Israeli authorities arrested Mohammad al-Halabi, the Gaza director of World Vision, an international charity organization, for allegedly diverting funds to the Palestinian resistance group.



Members of the organization's Gaza staff, along with dozens of children and beneficiaries of the charity's services, took part in Tuesday's protest, holding banners aloft bearing al-Halabi's image.



"Today, we stand in solidarity with al-Halabi, who was arrested 10 months ago on false pretenses," Tahani Zaqout, a Palestinian World Vision employee and protest organizer, said at the demonstration.



Al-Halabi's arrest, Zaqout asserted, was "aimed at stopping the [charity's] humanitarian work and prolonging Gaza's deteriorating humanitarian situation".



Last week, the Australian Foreign Ministry announced that an investigation into the Israeli allegations against al-Halabi had failed to turn up any evidence linking him to Hamas.



World Vision, too, has said previously that they had yet to see any evidence of the charges against al-Halabi.



"We thank Australia and Germany for standing by the [World Vision] foundation and for refuting the allegations," Zaqout said.



She went on to urge the international community to work for al-Halabi's immediate release so that he might "continue to help more than 8,000 Palestinian children who remain in desperate need of the foundation's assistance".



Israeli pressure on aid agencies operating in Gaza has mounted steadily over the last two years, with Israel frequently accusing employees of such agencies of aiding Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007.



In February, the Israeli authorities arrested Mohamed Murtaja, a Palestinian employee of Turkish aid agency TIKA, likewise accusing him of funneling funds to Hamas -- allegations he has strenuously denied.



And last year, Wahid Abdullah al-Bursh, an engineer with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), was arrested by Israel amid allegations that he had diverted aid allocations to Hamas' military wing.



Al-Bursh spent six months in an Israeli jail -- he was released in January -- after cutting a plea deal with the Israeli authorities.



The foundations involved, for their part, reject Israel's accusations, saying their sole function is to deliver humanitarian assistance to those in need. -