Voice of Revolution

U.S. is the Criminal, Not Palestine!

Defend Palestine's Right to Be

The U.S. is organizing to wipe out the Palestinians as a people. It is attempting to starve the population by bringing the economy to a halt, making it impossible for the government of Palestine, the Palestine Authority (PA) to pay wages, blocking banks worldwide from sending funds and now targeting humanitarian aid from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

The government is dictating that no banks, anywhere, including the Arab banks, forward funds to the PA. It is openly blackmailing the banks, saying all U.S. assets of the banks will be frozen if any funds, including those that rightfully and legally belong to Palestine, are forwarded. The blackmail is not empty, given the role of the U.S. dollar and financial institutions in the world trade and financial system. The U.S. has also sanctioned actions by Israel designed to destroy Palestine, its economy and government, including withholding taxes taken from Palestinian workers and belonging to Palestine.

The United Nations and many other organizations have spoken to the very grave situation facing the Palestinian people. The situation is a direct result of these U.S. crimes of collective punishment and genocide. It is the U.S. that is the criminal and world terrorist and must be condemned and punished as such.

The recent bill passed by the House of Representatives, HR4681, targets humanitarian aid from nongovernmental organizations. It also targets the United Nations. The bill is part of the efforts by the government to put in place arrangements where the president can dictate which peoples, which political organizations, which humanitarian organizations, which individuals can exist. In the name of opposing terrorism, HR4681 criminalizes the Palestinians as a people, as well as any organization that supports the Palestinians without the authorization of the president. Much like the House bill on immigration, criminalizing immigrants and those who support them, this bill aims to criminalize Palestinians and those who support them.

The U.S. is unleashing this terrorism as revenge for the just and courageous stand of the Palestinian people to reject U.S. and Israeli dictate and chart their own path forward. Defending their rights, the Palestinians elected Hamas in their January elections. While the United -Nations and many countries recognize Hamas as a political organization, the U.S. has branded it a "terrorist" organization. It is now unleashing its impunity against the Palestinians, the United Nations, and many NGOs as revenge for the refusal of the Palestinians to submit to U.S. dictate.

Voice of Revolution salutes the Palestinians, for their January election victory and for their just and courageous stand against the U.S. and its hired gun, Israel. We join the world's people in saying, We Are All Palestinians and we will together defend the right of Palestine to be.

The U.S. is the Criminal! Free Free Palestine!

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Hundreds of Organizations Oppose Government Attack on Palestine

More than 340 organizations across the country have joined together to organize national opposition to HR4681, the bill of the House of Representatives that virtually lays siege to Palestine by blocking humanitarian aid. Among those organizing resistance are the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the American Friends Service Committee, Global Exchange, Jewish Voice for Peace, Middle East Children's Alliance, Partners for Peace, Pax Christi USA, Peace Action Wisconsin, and Tikkun. Tens of thousands of letters, emails, phone calls, and faxes have been sent to Congress by people from all walks of life denouncing HR4681 as illegal and inhuman.

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has put forward the following considerations as part of efforts to oppose the bill:

. Palestinians should be congratulated, not admonished and threatened with diplomatic isolation and a cut off of aid, for conducting a free and fair, competitive, multi-party legislative election under harsh conditions of Israeli military occupation and besiegement, restrictions on their freedom of movement and -ability to campaign freely, and other human rights violations.

. The United States professes to promote democracy abroad. Supporting democracy means supporting the results of free and fair elections as an expression of the self-determination of the people who cast ballots, even when the United States and its allies are not pleased with the outcome.

. The United States provides virtually no direct assistance to the Palestine Authority; almost all U.S. aid projects to Palestinians are implemented by non-governmental organizations through contracts awarded and overseen by the U.S. Agency for International Development. These humanitarian programs are important to the social and economic wellbeing of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories whose ability to earn a livelihood is drastically curtailed by Israel's confiscation of Palestinian lands and water resources for illegal settlements, curtailment of freedom of movement by constructing a wall intended to annex Palestinian land to Israel, and other human rights violations. Cutting off this humanitarian aid would only cruelly punish people for exercising their right to vote.

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House Resolution 4681

U.S. Tries to Criminalize Palestinian People and Government

The House of Representatives passed Resolution 4681 (HR4681) on May 23, 2006 by a majority vote. The bill serves to criminalize the Palestinian people and organizations that assist and support them, especially those providing humanitarian aid. HR4681 is an effort to not only starve and punish the Palestinians, especially women and children, for exercising their right to vote. It is also an effort to criminalize the many humanitarian and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that support the Palestinians. The NGOs commonly fund orphanages, schools, hospitals, medicine, assistance for refugees, educational exchanges, and so forth.

The bill will essentially brand anyone supporting the Palestinians as supporters of terrorism and subject to having their resources frozen and leadership jailed. The justification being given by the government is that as a result of the Palestinian elections in January, where Hamas won a majority, the Palestine Authority, and all its ministries, is a terrorist organization and the occupied territories represent a "terrorist sanctuary." As punishment for this election, the U.S. is striving to literally starve the Palestinians into submission.

HR4681 also attacks the voice and identity of Palestinians internationally by closing the Palestinian Authority diplomatic missions in the United States and refusing visas for Palestinian Authority officials. It does not permit the use of federal funds (including those of organizations that receive federal funds, such as many of the NGOs to establish any contacts with Hamas. It also withholds U.S. funds for the United Nations - already agreed to - on the basis that the UN has various bodies that give expression to the demands and needs of the Palestinian people. In this manner the U.S. is attempting to criminalize not only the Palestinian people and government, but NGOs and international bodies like the United Nations.

Attacks on the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and Gaza

On the basis of an arbitrary definition of terrorism, the bill states under Section 2 that it shall be the government's policy "to oppose those organizations, individuals, and countries that support terrorism and violence" and goes on to "urge members of the international community to avoid contact with and refrain from financially supporting the terrorist organization Hamas or a Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority." The U.S. has already taken action to stop assistance by banks worldwide, by using the blackmail that their U.S. assets will be frozen if they provide funds of any kind to Palestine.

Section 620K, under the same heading, "Limitation on Assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA)," establishes numerous guidelines pertaining to how and when "assistance" may be provided to the PA. It states in part, "assistance may be provided under this Act to the Palestinian Authority only during a period for which a certification described in subsection (b) is in effect."

A certification is essentially an -authorization or determination made by the president. For example, "assistance" cannot be provided unless the president determines that, "no ministry, agency, or instrumentality of the Palestinian Authority is controlled by a foreign terrorist organization and no member of a foreign terrorist organization serves in a senior policy making position in a ministry, agency, or instrumentality of the -Palestinian -Authority."

Certifications are made solely by the president although they will be "reviewed periodically" by various Congressional committees, including the Committee on International Relations and the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives; the Committee on Foreign Relations and Committee on -Appropriations of the Senate.

The same section stipulates that audits of "United States assistance to the Palestinian Authority under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961" will be undertaken by "the Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development, and all other relevant departments and agencies of the Government of the United States."

Section 620L, "Limitation on Assistance for the West Bank and Gaza," stipulates that "assistance may be provided under this Act to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) for the West Bank and Gaza only during a period for which a certification" is in effect. This means that only the president can authorize such assistance and that the NGOs cannot provide it absent such authorization. Several other rules and guidelines establish circumstances under which "other types of assistance" may be provided, for example, for purposes of "national security" as determined by the president in consultation with the appropriate committees.

Under a subsection of 620L titled "Oversight and Related Requirements," it states that prior to providing any "assistance" to nongovernmental organizations for the West Bank or Gaza, the secretary of state shall "ensure that such assistance is not provided to or through any individual or entity that the Secretary knows, or has reason to believe, advocates, plans, sponsors, engages in, or has engaged in, terrorist activity. The Secretary shall, as appropriate, establish procedures specifying the steps to be taken in carrying out this paragraph and shall terminate assistance to any individual or entity that the Secretary has determined advocates, plans, sponsors, or engages in terrorist activity." Further, no "assistance" may be provided "for the purpose of recognizing or otherwise honoring individuals or the families of individuals who commit, or have committed, acts of terrorism." This is directly aimed at the families engaged in resistance to the U.S.-backed Israeli occupation.

Under the subsection called "Audits," the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is given responsibility for ensuring that "independent audits of all contractors and grantees, and significant subcontractors and subgrantees, that receive amounts for assistance to nongovernmental organizations for the West Bank or Gaza under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 are conducted to ensure, among other things, compliance with this subsection."

Section 5 of the bill stipulates that during non-certified periods, which at present is all the time, "the territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority should be deemed to be in use as a sanctuary for terrorists or terrorist organizations." This means that those organizations, like NGOs and religious groups, who attempt to provide aid apart from the Palestine Authority can be criminalized for providing material support to terrorists.

Given that the U.S. has branded Hamas, which now heads the Palestinian government as a "terrorist" organization, any aid that is associated with the Palestinian government will be considered "sponsoring terrorist activity." It is also well known that Hamas has long been a main provider of local social services, such as healthcare, and that these too will be impacted.

In addition, trade will also be impacted as businesses will need special export licenses for most goods destined for the Occupied Palestinian Territories and more generally for conducting business there.

The overall impact of these requirements is that the NGOs, those who receive federal funds of any kind as well as those who do not, must submit to these demands or face being branded terrorists or supporters of terrorists and criminalized in this manner. The government is organizing to arbitrarily brand various NGOs as supporters of terrorism and seize their assets and/or shut them down, just as they did earlier with the various Muslim charities. The bill serves to directly harm the Palestinians as a people, imposing collective punishment, while also robbing the international movements in support of Palestine of funds and organized assistance.

Attack on Palestinian Organizations Within the United Nations

HR4681 also empowers the president to arbitrarily "withhold funding" from entities within the United Nations that defend the claims and demands of the Palestinian people. These include: The United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights; The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People; The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority; The NGO Network on the Question of Palestine; and the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories. All are being targeted, with the U.S. planning to withhold funds to the United Nations, something it is obligated to do and has already agreed to do. Instead of meeting its responsibility, the bill provides justification for using its financial resources to blackmail not only these organizations but also the UN itself and all the countries that participate in it.

Sections 6 and 7 severely restrict the movement of Palestinian officials to the United States and within the country. Section 8 prohibits Palestine Authority representation in the United States, meaning they will be blocked from participation at the UN, in international conferences organized in the U.S., as well as travel through the U.S. to other locations.

Blackmail of Banks Worldwide

Section 9 directs U.S. representatives at "international financial institutions" to "use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States to prohibit assistance to the Palestinian Authority unless a certification described in subsection (b) is in effect with respect to the Palestinian Authority." Already tens of millions of dollars destined for the Palestinians have been prevented from reaching them, greatly exacerbating the extreme hardships faced by women, children and all Palestinians.

This section of the bill is an effort to make the U.S. blackmail "legal" and also require the implementation of the threats.

HR4681 is itself criminal and sanctioning crimes against humanity. It must be vigorously opposed. At this point, the Senate is considering its own bill on the matter. If the Senate passes a bill the two must then be reconciled through a Joint Committee and then passed by both Houses in a Joint Resolution. It would then go to the president. At present, it is unlikely that any bill will be acted on until after the summer recess, begriming May 27, 2006, is over.

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Palestinian Banking System

U.S. Interfering Worldwide to Block Funds to Palestine

- Palestine Media Center, May 17, 2006 -

Exacerbating the Palestinian financial crisis, the second and last Israeli bank serving the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, the Discount Bank, announced on Tuesday it was severing ties with the Palestinian banking system in the next three to six months, as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) urged Arab banks "to be more courageous" and President Mahmoud Abbas warned of a catastrophe for the Palestinian people that could lead to an "explosion of anger."

On Monday, May 15, European Union (EU) foreign ministers pledged in Brussels to go ahead with a "temporary mechanism" to provide financial assistance to the Palestinian people via a trust fund bypassing the Hamas-led government, in line with an agreement among the diplomatic "Quartet" of the EU, the U.S., Russia and the United Nations.

Israel, however, backed by the United States, was tightening its siege on the PNA. It is still illegally withholding the transfer of $50 million of PNA's dues of monthly customs receipts and Israeli banks are boycotting the Palestinian banks, disrupting the banking system as well as the business and daily life in the occupied territories.

President Abbas described Israel's decision to withhold the transfer of $50 million in monthly customs receipts as "inhumane" and "illegal."

Israeli Banks Severing Ties

Israel's Discount Bank on Tuesday said it was severing ties with banks operating in Palestinian areas.

"No suitable framework was found which would enable Discount Bank to provide banking services to the Palestinian banks without it being exposed to the significant risks involved in such activities," the bank said.

The decision will make it more difficult for Palestinians - both the government and business people - to continue their substantial financial dealings with Israeli businesses.

The bank's decision came after Israel's largest bank, Bank Hapoalim, cut off all connections with the PNA and Palestinian banks last month in the wake of the swearing-in of the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

The move threatened to put further strain on the Palestinian economy.

The PNA pays its tens of thousands of employees in Israeli shekels. The Palestinian government buys key supplies, such as fuel, electricity and water, from Israel, and numerous businesses buy goods from Israeli suppliers.

Under interim peace accords signed in the mid-1990s, only two Israeli banks - Discount and Bank Hapoalim - are authorized to facilitate such transactions.

A senior official at the Bank of Israel said experts are "aware of the delicacy" of the situation and hope to find a solution very soon. He said the central bank would work with governmental finance, legal and other ministries to establish guidelines allowing the Israeli commercial banks to maintain ties with the Palestinians, Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Tuesday.

"We are very committed and willing to find a solution along with a way to reduce the risks of assisting financing of terrorism," he said. "We know that we have to be very creative about it."

The London-based Al-Hayat pan-Arab daily quoted American sources as saying on Wednesday that not only the United States, but also the European Union, Egypt, Jordan and others have committed to halting the flow of money to the PNA. Even some Palestinian banks reportedly feared that the U.S. would cut off business ties with them, it added.

The Palestinian economy was part of the Egyptian and Jordanian economies before 1967, when Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

After the war, Israeli policymakers chose to integrate those territories with the Israeli economy. The Israeli shekel became the official currency. Palestinian banks developed relationships with Israeli banks.

The Oslo accords reinforced the trend. Foreign funding in 2005 amounted to $1.3 billion of the PNA's $1.9 billion annual budget. Almost all of this money, including the European Union's $600 million a year, has been withdrawn.

Countries still pledging direct aid include Saudi Arabia ($92 million), Iran ($50 million), Qatar ($50 million), and Russia ($10 million). This money still leaves a massive shortfall and is insufficient to cover the PNA's monthly wage bill of approximately $100 million for its 165,000 employees.

Arab Banks Also Blocked

However, even these Arab and Islamic pledges are blocked by Israel and the United States.

The Arab League could not yet go ahead with a plan to transfer $70 million of those pledges directly to PNA employees, saying that the donation could not proceed, as regional and international banks refused to transfer the money due to fear of U.S. anti-terrorist laws, which allow for institutions to have sanctions imposed and their assets frozen.

Moreover, Arab-owned banks holding PNA accounts reportedly began in April trying to persuade the PNA to withdraw its money, apparently out of fear that the U.S. and Western European countries would impose sanctions against them for holding "terrorist" funds.

Banks in the region are particularly vulnerable to U.S. pressure because they rely heavily on "correspondent" financial institutions in the United States to conduct their day-to-day business.

Under U.S. law, any foreign bank that refuses to cooperate with the United States in cutting off funding to Hamas could have its U.S. assets frozen and its access to U.S. financial markets denied.

U.S. banks that maintain "correspondent" relationships with banned foreign banks could also be found in breach of U.S. law.

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the president of the International Union of Muslims Scholars (IUMS), threatened last week that, "We will call for a boycott of banks that refuse to transfer donated funds to the Palestinian people," he told the opening session of a conference for the support of Palestinian people in Doha, Qatar on Wednesday, May 10. Millions of dollars have been raised for the Palestinians, he said, "But these funds were not transferred to the Palestinians because banks are refusing to cooperate fearing U.S. sanctions. If this continues, we will urge Muslims to withdraw their money from these banks."

Several Arab banks have refused to transfer millions of dollars donated by Arabs and Muslims or some governments to the PNA fearing American sanctions.

The Arab Bank, which holds 30,000 accounts of PNA workers, refrained from accepting such transfers after the U.S. threatened to deem this as assistance to Hamas.

Palestinian bank executives need only look down the road to the once-bustling Al Aqsa Islamic Bank building to remind themselves of the dangers of dealing with the new Hamas-led government.

Al Aqsa boasted of being the fastest growing bank in the Palestinian territories with ties to Citibank, one of Wall Street's most powerful financial institutions - until U.S. President George W. Bush in 2001 labeled it "a financial arm of Hamas" and froze it out of the U.S. market.

"From that day on, they blocked all our accounts, all over the world," said Adnan Sabri, assistant branch manager for Al Aqsa, which denies harboring Hamas funds. (http://www.gulf-daily-news.com, 24 April 2006).

"Anybody who deals with the new government will have the same problem. It's impossible to function this way," he said in his Ramallah office, on a street lined by banks.

Suheil Gedeon, chairman of the board of the Commercial Bank of Palestine, said most Palestinian banks, rightly or wrongly, "are afraid to deal with the government" because "small banks like us need the U.S."

Gedeon said the Commercial Bank of Palestine would give the government no new loans "because of the risk and the political climate."

Abdulla Shihadeh, regional manager of the Jordan Commercial Bank, also had no plans to deal with Hamas and risk the bank's non-Palestinian operations. "We have red lines," he said.

PM Haniyeh Appeals to Palestinian, Arab Banks

On Tuesday, May 16, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called on Arab banks to transfer money: "I urge Palestinian banks to show their nationalism and accept transfers in order to alleviate the suffering."

"Banks in Arab countries should have the courage to transfer aid to the Palestinian people," said Haniyeh at a weekly cabinet meeting.

"I appeal to the Arab banks to send the money and I appeal to our Palestinian banks to have the courage to receive the money," he added.

"Every Palestinian family is suffering because the government employees have not been paid since March, although the Palestinian cabinet has managed to ensure enough money for the salaries," he said.

Inter-Palestinian Banking Transactions Affected

Even inter-Palestinian banking transactions are affected by the financial siege. Al-Ahram Weekly's correspondent Erica Silverman reported this week that a sudden upsurge in cash withdrawals, in reaction to the economic crisis, has depleted cash reserves in the Palestinian territories. A PNA auditor attempted to withdraw $40,000 from the Arab Bank in Gaza City. He was informed that $3,000-$4,000 was the maximum amount for withdrawal available.

"Under Israeli occupation, Palestinians lack their own central banking system, meaning Palestinian banks must transfer cash reserves to the Israeli Central Bank," Al-Ahram said, adding, "The Israeli Central Bank has tightened restrictions on cash transfers from abroad."

On May 3, Reuters reported that some of the 24 banks operating in Palestinian areas have given two months' worth of salaries to thousands of government workers.

Some bankers told Reuters that government workers had been allowed to take out cash equal to their wages despite running an overdraft.

They said they have also extended a 2004 policy allowing state employees to get loans without interest or fees and extending Visa card withdrawals without salary guarantees.

But from this month, those banks stopped providing salary advances and other similar programs, partly for commercial reasons but also because banks were told by the United States they risked punitive measures if they rendered services to the Hamas government, bankers told Reuters.

Some banks have also stopped the Visa card operations, while others have refused to give employees running overdrafts, Reuters added.

An Arab Bank customer has told PMC that she could not transfer her house rental to her tenant's account, as she used to do, with the same branch of the bank unless she obtains a power of attorney from him authorizing her to do so and indicating the amount of the rental, the bank officer told her.

The ongoing international and Arab financial embargo has led to a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented dimensions within the West Bank and Gaza. The already impoverished Occupied Territories are facing a complete economic collapse, with skyrocketing unemployment and poverty and increasing hunger and malnutrition.

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Palestine

Attempt to Asphyxiate a People
- Elsa Claro, Granma International, May 11, 2006 -

Leading up to his resignation as special envoy of the Middle East Quartet (the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations), James Wolfensohn objected to cutting humanitarian aid for the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), which is equivalent to starving the Palestinians to death.

With elemental common sense, and probably recalling his former position in finance, the official described the measures taken by Washington and followed unhesitatingly by the European Union (although it claims to be against economic sanctions) as absurd. And after spending more than $1 billion a year in aid, above all to create government institutions and economic foundations without which it is impossible to create "a viable Palestinian state, it is an imprudent step," Wolfensohn states.

The new Israeli Prime Minister Ehmud Olmert, immersed in creating a cabinet from the divided political class, set a bad example when he withdrew the $55 million monthly taxation payment to the PNA.

However, that move is small change in comparison with the U.S./European boycott and subsequent punitive measures that could prevent nations of the region from coming to the aid of the Palestinians.

In early May, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced that the Hamas cabinet had gained the disposition of Arab countries and the Muslim population to provide financial aid, but that attempts to prevent Palestinians from receiving that help are intense. That demonstrates that the United States is cutting funds to pressure the PNA government to make concessions, he stated.

In effect, the Arab League raised $70 million for the Palestinians, but was unable to deliver it due to hesitation on the part of banks, which are afraid to transfer funds to Hamas government accounts because of possible U.S. sanctions.

The U.S. government, expert at this type of evil intrigue, wants the economic strangulation to produce reactions against Hamas, so that its government fails. As a pretext it is using Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel as legitimate.

However, officials of the Islamic Resistance Movement are continuing to reiterate their disposition to sit down at the negotiating table with Tel Aviv, "if that can bring a just peace for the Palestinians," in other words, if the Israeli government proceeds with seriousness and leaves aside its subterfuge sanctioned and never criticized by the West. That is something that PNA President Mahmud Abbas agrees on, while also affirming that "there will be no concessions to Israel if it is a matter that affects Palestinian principles."

Meanwhile, the lack of income is affecting thousands of teachers, students, police and various public employees, breaking the economic chain of survival. Witnesses say that in the Nuseirat refugee camp, with a population of more than 80,000, storekeepers are wondering whether or not their customers who are unable to pay will continue to receive their basic necessities, while they themselves are not able to pay their providers.

For a population that has suffered terrible limitations for years and is confronted with continuous attacks from Israeli territory and armed incursions with deadly results, the present situation is leading to intolerable times. That is what Washington and Brussels are aiming for, without -- it appears -- carefully weighing up the consequences.

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