Israeli Arab party linked to NGO funneling money to Hamas-run groups

“Aid 48” has been dissolved for transferring millions in goods and funds to terror groups in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

An NGO linked to the Islamist United Arab List (UAL) supported Hamas and other terror groups and has now been dissolved, as per the order of the Israeli Registrar of Nonprofits.

Igatha (Aid) 48 is the charitable branch of the southern faction of the Islamic Movement, whose political branch is the UAL, known in Hebrew as the Ra’am party.

The Registrar found “numerous flaws and improper conduct in the management of the association,” having discovered that it transferred millions of shekels to organizations outlawed by Israel for their terrorist activities.

Within Israel these include an NIS2 million grant to the Hebron Charitable Association, and outside the country, the Turkey-based Khair al Umma Foundation has been generously supported by Aid 48 for years, with an NIS933,000 donation in 2020 alone.

This foundation, said the Registrar, “belongs to Hamas and the members of the organization are Hamas activists,” as per the Israel Security Service (Shabak).

The Aid 48 link to Khair al Ummah had been known since 2023, when the Registrar asked the social support organization for clarifications regarding its financial transfers to the foreign group.

In February 2024, after media outlet Hakol HaYehudi investigated and publicized the connection between the UAL and Khair al Ummah, party officials denied knowing that the foundation was affiliated with Hamas, saying they ran joint project that were “strictly humanitarian and educational.”

However, the outlet found that “Senior members of Ra’am were proved to have been present during incitement from members of Khair al Ummah,” and that some of its educational material, “delivered by Ra’am leaders,” included “extremist rhetoric and incitement.”

The “Choose Life” forum of bereaved families and victims of terrorism, which had filed the original complaint with the Registrar against Aid 48, welcomed the decision to dissolve the association.

“This is a historic victory for the forum,” it stated, “which cut off Hamas’ funding pipeline from the Islamic movement of Ra’am and the Aid 48 association, whose financial turnover exceeded NIS250 million in the years before October 7,” the day in 2023 when Hamas sparked war with Israel after it invaded the country and massacred 1,200 people, the vast majority of them civilians.

“We demand that senior Ra’am officials and related organizations be arrested for questioning,” the forum added, “and that all relevant criminal laws be applied against them. Anyone who supported Hamas until October 7th should be sent to prison.”

At a Knesset House Committee meeting on Sunday which dealt in part with the investigation of Aid 48, MK Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) voiced support for the idea, saying, “We can’t settle with the dissolution of an organization that transferred funds to Hamas. This is a severe crime according to the Combating Terror Law.”

“We’re dealing with hundreds of millions of shekels which were transferred to our enemies, with clear knowledge that these were terror organizations.”

The Arab party made history when it joined the unity government headed by Naftali Bennett in 2021, with UAL head MK Mansour Abbas professing that the UAL wanted only to improve the lives of Arab citizens and help bring peace to the region.

Numerous attempts have been made to disqualify Ra’am as well as other Arab lists from running for Knesset on the basis of their members’ support of terrorism, but either the Knesset’s Elections Committee or the Supreme Court has consistently rejected such requests.