The recent arrest of World Vision’s top Gaza official, who admitted to diverting millions of dollars to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, underscores several problems plaguing the international charity’s operations in the Middle East, the watchdog group NGO Monitor wrote in a report published Wednesday.
The arrest of Mohammad el-Halabi in August over his role in funneling charity funds to Gaza’s ruling terrorist organization reflected “the inherent danger of humanitarian groups operating in warzones, risking the diversion of aid by violent actors, including terrorist organizations,” NGO Monitor observed. Despite this, World Vision has released only “limited information regarding El-Halabi, the organization’s finances, and allegations of anti-Israel biases in World Vision staff.”
To restore its reputation, World Vision must first confront the anti-Israel bias prevalent among its leadership and its issues with financial management, the watchdog argued.
In addressing the former, NGO Monitor listed a number of World Vision officials who are involved in campaigns to delegitimize Israel:
1) Sami Khoury, listed as the financial manager in the 2015 report, is a member of Sabeel’s General Assembly. Sabeel is a leader of church demonization, including the use of overtly antisemitic themes.
2) Raffoul Rofa, a board member since 2008 and chair since 2009, is also the director of the Society of St.Yves, a highly politicized anti-Israel NGO.
3) Founder Michel Sabbah authored (with Naim Ateek of Sabeel and Atallah Hanna) the 2009 Kairos Palestine document, which promotes BDS in churches, compares Israel with the South African apartheid regime, and denies the Jewish historical connection to Israel.
4) Anton Asfar is a member of the WV-IL board of directors, and serves on the board of St. Yves.
The watchdog added that in 2015, World Vision’s Vice-President Steve Haas criticized evangelical Christian support of Israel, which he claimed was based on “a very narrow theological narrative.” While the charity subsequently released a statement calling his remarks “unhelpfully simplified and combative,” Haas has nonetheless remained in his position.
NGO Monitor further observed that the Palestinian group Sabeel, which lobbies for boycotts of Israel and aims to advance an alternative interpretation of the Bible that is “nourished by the hopes, dreams and struggles of the Palestinian people,” claimed on a 2013 financial report that it received funds from World Vision. While a World Vision official told NGO Monitor that the charity did not fund Sabeel, no additional information was given to address the origin of the claim.
In the area of financial accountability, NGO Monitor noted that World Vision’s reporting lacks specificity. For example, World Vision claimed to have spent some $22.5 million over the past 10 years in Gaza, but has provided no details as to how the funds were divided between salaries and projects.
NGO Monitor added that the charity had reportedly investigated el-Halabi in 2015 after one of its accountants raised concerns that the director was stealing aid money and working with Hamas. World Vision hired an outside investigator who found no signs of impropriety. Given el-Halabi’s arrest and subsequent confession, NGO Monitor called on World Vision to clarify which official oversaw the investigation and what guidelines were followed in last year’s audit.
In an op-ed following el-Halabi’s arrest, Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, recommended that charities operating in Palestinian areas should do a better job of vetting employees, increase their cooperation with Israeli security agencies, and stop cash payments, which he described as a “direct path to corruption and diversion to terror.”
[Photo: Bluerasberry / WikiCommons ]