 Israel, Thursday, March 25, 2004 Nisan 3, 5764
Palestinian
charity sues British Jewry over terror
slur By Sharon Sadeh,
Haaretz
Correspondent LONDON - Interpal, one of the
largest Palestinian charitable funds in Britain,
has filed a libel suit against the Jewish
Board
of Deputies, the
umbrella organization of British Jewry, demanding
the organization apologize for referring to the
fund as a terror organization.  David
Irving comments: MY advice to the Interpal lawyers;
avoid Mr Justice Gray; hope for
Mr Justice Toulson -- if he hears
libel actions -- or one of the other
Queen's bench judges.
 Michael Whinge, director of the
Board of Deputies of British Jews. It
states its aims as being to further the
interests of the State of Israel. |
The board's response is to be submitted Thursday
[March 25,
2004] to the High Court and a hearing
will then be held to determine when the legal
proceedings will begin in court. Six months ago,
the Board of Deputies published on its
Web site a report that described Interpal as a
terrorist organization. Interpal calls itself an
"independent charitable organization providing
support to the poor and needy Palestinian
people."The Board of Deputies report followed a U.S.
decision published in August 2003 banning Interpal
activity in the U.S. on grounds of suspicion of
helping Hamas. The U.S. classified Interpal as a
"specially designated global terror
organization." The British commission
responsible for nonprofit organizations
[presumably
the Charity
Commission] opened an
inquiry that led to a freeze on Interpal
activity in Britain. The case was closed in
September 2003 and Interpal resumed activity
after the commission reached the conclusion
there was no evidence linking Interpal to Hamas.
The commission's report said the U.S. did not
provide any evidence of the accusations leveled
against Interpal. Security sources told Ha'aretz the FBI
had reservations about exposing classified
intelligence material or handing over documents to
the British commission, for fear it would be leaked
to hostile elements. Israel is furious about the
decision to allow Interpal to continue operations,
and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom
demanded at meetings with
British officials that they shut down the
fund. The British said they cannot take action
because the commission is an independent agency,
not subordinate to the government. After the commission closed the case, the Board
of Deputies admitted it made a mistake in its
description of Interpal and clarified that the
description that appeared on the site was imprecise
"according to the terms used in Britain." However, Interpal did not regard that as a
sufficient apology and warned it would submit the
libel suit if the Board of Deputies did not
completely retract its statements. In the wake of a
correspondence between the two organizations,
Interpal decided to go ahead with its suit. A
spokesman for Interpal told Haaretz yesterday that
the NPO operates in Britain alone and is unaware of
any legal proceedings against it in any other
country, including the U.S. and Canada. He said the suit against the Board of Deputies
was the result of their refusal to apologize "and
because they did not present any evidence proving
their claim that we are a terror organization." He
added a demand for compensation will be made during
the trial and denied the Palestinian Authority had
made the fund's work difficult as it had in the
past, saying there were "excellent relations" with
the PA. The Board of Deputies refused to comment on
the case. 
David
Irving's libel action against the Board of
Deputies of British Jews
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dossier on Board of Deputies of British
Jews
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