If this is true I can see that Europe/EU/UN is continuing its long tradition of anti-semitism. So now we got Saddam giving the palestinian terrorists cash as also the EU.
You can bet there are a whole lot of other nations funding palestinian terrorism.
You can bet there are a whole lot of other nations funding palestinian terrorism.
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/2-4-2003-34921.aspNation and World
Patten Faces Battle Over Eu Funds for Palestinians
MEPs claim Brussels is paying for terrorist acts against Israel.
By Guardian Newspapers, 2/4/2003
A group of MEPs demanded yesterday that Europe's financial support for the Palestinian Authority must be investigated because of allegations that cash is being diverted into anti-Israel propaganda and terrorist activities.
A cross-party group of 170 MEPs insisted that transparency had to be increased to account for one of the biggest single items on the EU's foreign aid budget. Their demand signals the start of a bruising fight with Chris Patten, the European Union's external affairs commissioner.
More than €10m (£6.5m) is channelled by the EU to the Palestinian Authority each month, helping shore up an infrastructure battered by border closures and Israeli military action and burdened by rising unemployment.
The issue is a hot potato in the sleepy debating chambers of Brussels and Strasbourg, with charges of partisanship flying furiously.
Ilka Schröder, a German Green MEP who is leading the campaign, charged that taxpayers' money was being used to "sponsor anti-semitic terrorist acts". Last year she and others met the relatives of Israelis killed in Palestinian suicide bombings.
Mr Patten has complained of receiving hate mail over the subject. Other MEPs have spoken of harassment by colleagues and accusations that they are supporting attacks on innocent civilians.
Pro-Israeli MEPs have gathered enough signatures to set up a committee of inquiry and say they are not content with a less-powerful working group drawn from three different parliamentary committees.
"There is substantial proof that EU funding has wrongly been used to finance school textbooks promoting hatred and inciting to martyrdom," the MEPs said.
"The use of a part of the Palestinian Authority's budget to reward the families of suicide bombers was a deciding factor for many of the parliamentarians to join this initiative."
According to an Israeli government report, 10% of the PA budget is spent on illegal activities, including the deduction from employees' salaries of compulsory membership fees for Yasser Arafat's Fatah.
The commission insists that there is no such proof, though Mr Patten has said that every last euro cannot be accounted for.
It also points out that the authority is required to channel revenues and expenses through a single ministry of finance account in Gaza, which also handles payments by Israel, the EU and other donors.
The commissioner has reportedly said he needed a full parliamentary inquiry "like a hole in the head".
Ms Schröder said yesterday: "The European Commission has had enough opportunities to show Mr Patten the red card for his winking approval of terrorist attacks funded by the EU."
Mr Patten has routinely condemned terrorist outrages but also criticised the Israeli government for disproportionate attacks against Palestinians.
Charles Tannock, a British Conservative, said he was "astonished by the hostility and resentment", shown by the European commission.
"Our initiative was prompted by a simple desire to ensure that EU funds are not misused for corrupt, or, more disturbingly, terrorist purposes," he told reporters.
Last year, according to EU figures, the Palestinian Authority operated on a budget of $90m (£54m) a month, $56 million of which paid for the wages of its 125,000 employees.
Commission and MEPs even disagree over whether spending is monitored by the IMF.
Willy De Clerq, a Belgian Liberal, said: "We are not for Israel or for the Palestinians. Neither are we against Israel or against the Palestinians. Our sole objective is to find the truth, which comes from transparency."
François Zimeray, a French Socialist, complained that Europe was "making a mockery" of its own values. "Europe has for too long closed its eyes to the corruption, the misappropriation of aid for education to financial support for propaganda as well as terrorism," he said.
"The blind indulgence of the EU is directly responsible for the death of civilians on both sides; it has rendered the Palestinian Authority childlike, radicalised positions and destroyed the peace initiative on both sides."
© Guardian Newspapers Limited
Saudis join Iraq in rewarding suicide bomber families
By Ellis Shuman May 1, 2002
04/29 Documents: Saudis Paid Bombers' Families
Fox News
04/09 Saudi Arabia sets aside $50M for 'martyrs'
Washington Times
The Saudis paid about $5,000 to each of 102 Palestinian families of suicide bombers and others killed in the terror campaign against Israel.
Israeli leaders express interest in Saudi peace initiative
Hamas vows revenge after IDF eliminates "most wanted" Abu Hanoud
Bethlehem militiamen killed as IDF clamps down on Ramallah and Jenin
What makes suicide bombers tick?
Documents discovered by Israel during Operation Defensive Shield revealed the extent of financial support Saudi Arabia has provided to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. According to the documents, the Saudis paid about $5,000 to each of 102 Palestinian families of suicide bombers and others killed in the terror campaign against Israel. In addition, the Saudis provided extensive financial support to the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations.
One of the documents seized in Tulkarm included a table detailing the names of eight suicide bombers and their commanders, including "most-wanted" Hamas terrorist Mahmoud Abu Hanoud and Bethlehem's Tanzim leader Atef Abayat, both killed by Israeli military strikes.
According to the table, the Saudi Committee for Support of the Al-Aqsa Intifada transferred the money to the families through the Saudi-run Arab Bank. The committee is managed by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz.
The Saudi government has consistently denied reports that it has paid the families of suicide bombers. A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy told Fox News that the Saudis "don't pay suicide bombers."
The spokesman charged that Israel was attempting to discredit the Saudi Arabian government at a time when Crown Prince Abdullah was meeting with President George W. Bush in Texas.
Israel's interest in revealing the Saudi payments to families of suicide bombers is twofold, wrote Itamar Eichner in Yediot Aharonot. Israel wants the United States to be aware of the true face of Saudi Arabia and its support of terror, at a time when the Saudis are pushing for increased American pressure on Israel. In addition, Israel is hoping that the exposure of the documents will force the Saudis to stop, or at least make it more difficult for them to continue their funding practices. This would dry up part of the financial support for suicide bombing, Eichner wrote.
Americans not aware that Saudis fund bombers' families
"The Saudis have assured us that they don't want the money going to support violence," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Friday. He said the Saudis had promised that the funds they raised were only going to "legitimate charities" in the Palestinian terrorists.
"I have no information whatsoever that suggests that the government of Saudi Arabia is doing what Iraq is," U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said at a news briefing last month.
President Bush has tied Iraq to events in the Middle East, charging that Saddam Hussein encouraged suicide bombings in Israel by making payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. In March, Hussein increased the level of Iraqi support for the families to $25,000.
"They're not martyrs," President Bush said of Palestinian suicide bombers on April 4. "They're murderers and they undermine the cause of the Palestinian people. Those governments like Iraq that reward parents for the sacrifice of their children are guilty of soliciting murder of the worst kind."
The Saudi Committee for Support of the Al-Aqsa Intifada recently raised nearly $110 million in a charity telethon, and some of this may have been transferred to the Hamas, Fox News reported. "There are troubling aspects as to how that telethon money would be distributed," admitted U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said he would raise the telethon issue with Saudi officials.
The Washington Times reported on April 9 that the Saudi Arabian government has already paid out $33 million to families of Palestinians killed or injured during the Intifada, and in December earmarked another $50 million for payments. The Saudi Committee for Support of the Al-Aqsa Intifada distributes payments of $5,333 to the families of the dead, with no distinction in compensation to families of suicide bombers and those killed by Israeli military action, the paper said.
"They want to make it sound like (all the money is for) the families of suicide bombers," charged Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American Islamic Relations.
December 25th, 2002
Iraq continues to award funds to families of Palestinian terrorists
The Iraqi government has transferred funds over the past week (18 and 22 Dec. 2002), through Palestinian satellite parties, acting on its behalf, from the president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, to families of Palestinian terrorists- including suicide attackers.
Distributing financial awards from the Iraqi government to
families of Palestinian terrorists (10 Sept. 2002)
Representatives of the Iraqi Ba'ath party and the Arab Liberation Front, held ceremonies in Gaza, in which they gave awards to families of terrorists. Families of suicide attackers received an award of $25,000, while families of terrorists who were killed received a $10,000 reward.
In a ceremony that was held 18 Dec. 2002, Iraq distributed awards totaling $280,000.
The continued Iraqi support of families of suicide bombers displays Iraq's persistent support of Palestinian terrorism, and its encouragement of suicide attacks as the preferred path in the armed struggle against Israel.
Source: The official newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (19 Dec. 2002 and 23 Dec. 2002)
That was worth breaking my boycott for, Prof. 
