Gifting terror – Part 3

GIFT OF THE GIVERS (GoG) IN GAZA

GoG Worldwide

GoG has offices in many parts of the world: Malawi, Sri Lanka, South Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Turkey USA and notably Gaza, Judea, and Samaria (West Bank) .  It was present during the Syrian civil war and in Lebanon in 2006. It has been involved in disaster relief in Southern Africa.

GoG was involved in Yemen in 2014 in hostage rescue operations. It actively participated in negotiations to free Pierre Korkie, a South African teacher, who was held by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Korkie died in a rescue attempt.  In Lebanon Dr Soliman himself was part of a group who were granted a tour of the Hezbollah stronghold in Dahyia, southern Beirut in August 2006.

Involvement in Gaza from 2009

Sooliman’s initial intervention in Gaza in 2009 was massive. Valued at $2m, the biggest aid package that GoG had sent offshore in 16 years, included 84 tons of medicine, medical equipment, wheelchairs, a fully equipped ambulance, generators, mattresses, blankets, protein supplements and baby food^.  Together with twenty-five people in the medical team, including trauma counsellors, specialized paramedics, and twelve journalists, the mission required a 747 Jumbo jet.  None of this was possible without the logistical and political support of the ANC government. The mission was given a high-profile send-off at OR Tambo International Airport by government officials and the ANC.

Sooliman made questionable choices of personnel. A member of the medical team regarded by several countries as a highly trained Al Qaeda operative, Dr Feroze Abu Bakr Ganchi, was arrested by Egyptian security and detained for questioning.  Dr Sooliman claimed to be unaware of Ganchi’s “diplomatic baggage” despite previous wide media attention locally and internationally.  The South African government negotiated Ganchi’s release after 48 hours. Ganchi went on to die in 2019 during an air-strike in Syria.

From the earliest days of GoG in Gaza, Sooliman ensured he was accompanied by a media team, to actively shape the narrative by collecting information which he and the Hamas leadership want media to distribute from Gaza.

The 2023 Gaza War 

Khuza’a Clinic in Khan Younis has been administrated, funded, and managed by GoG since 2019. This clinic was involved in treating injuries of activists during the March of Return in 2021.  On 7 October 2023, terrorists set out from the Gaza town of Khirbet Khuza’a to commit genocide in Israel. In every sense of the word. The town of Khuza’a is less than two kilometers (1.2 miles) and only farmland separates the town from Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the hardest hit Israeli communities. More than ten percent of the community was murdered on that day (46 of its 400 residents). 71 residents were taken hostage into Gaza. Many more were injured and scarred for life.

Gazan supporters and civilian thugs from Khirbet Khuza’a followed Iranian proxy terrorists, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad on the Black Sabbath massacre and actively participated in arson, killings, lootings, kidnapping, rape, and torture. Reliable and accurate reports have emerged showing that there was not one single clinic, hospital, school, or mosque, including many private homes in Khan Yunis including the Khuza’a area of Gaza that did not have weapons, a tunnel or infrastructure used for terror purposes. Looted items from Kibbutz Nir Oz including children’s toys and other personal items were located in this area and documented. Some of this evidence was presented in graphic format on social media.

The IDF has found many signs of terrorist activity including weapons consignments in almost all clinics, hospitals, mosques, and schools in Gaza.  These certainly include clinics and medical centres where GoG give aid and are operational. Sooliman has employed their people “familiar with the culture, the people and the terrain” All GoG projects in Gaza necessarily function with the consent of Hamas authorities or to provide services on its behalf.  Sooliman established a network of offices, operational sites, medical facilities, and programs throughout Gaza, deliberately setting up multiple operational offices to offset the risk of Israeli attention. “We know how Israel works so we got multiple places where we can operate from” he said. GoG dispenses cash to citizens of Gaza.  There are no controls. How is Gift of the Givers moving cash to Gaza? Who are its beneficiaries? Do they include Hamas or other designated terrorists?   Dr Sooliman boasts that he knows how to move money. The question is whether there is accountability for GoG cash transfers.

GoG Partisanship

The humanitarian services of GoG are partisan and far from neutral despite claiming to align with international humanitarian law (see below). It has chosen sides with Hamas thereby endorsing the hatred, cruelty and inhumanity of Hamas as well as condoning the total contempt of Hamas for any semblance of international law and human rights standards. Dr Sooliman  has made no efforts to utilize his diplomatic influence or to mobilize the Palestinian Red Crescent or International Red Cross to provide basic aid let alone secure the release of the hostages. This can be contrasted with the efforts to secure the release of the South African hostage in Yemen. Such an egregious omission speaks to the complete  lack of empathy and integrity of GoG as a humanitarian organisation.

Hamas Systematic Militarization of Hospitals

Bassem Naim is a physician who had worked at Al-Shifa Hospital. He has been sanctioned by the USA. He was Hamas Minister of Health in Gaza and is now head of its Council of International Relations. He worked closely with South Africa’s DIRCO, the foreign affairs department.  Upon assuming office in 2007 Naim promptly substituted all Fatah-affiliated hospital directors and medical staff with Hamas aligned people. He also put a plan in place to incorporate the hospitals into the military fabric of the Strip, systemically incorporating the hospitals into a billion-dollar underground tunnel network [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TXFRAZmUww  .

The GoG team was given rare access to Hamas military activities in Gaza.   By the middle of January 2009, as Sooliman and GoG were preparing to send medical material to Gaza, they were aware of the fact that “Hamas leadership was holed up in a bunker below building number 2 of Shifa Hospital” . A PBS documentary showed Hamas operatives openly roaming its halls, interfering with its staff, and blocking access to parts of the hospital. According to the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), “utilizing the presence of a civilian or other protected person to render certain points, areas, or military forces immune from military operations” is a war crime. Suffice it to say this was not reported.

The South African medical personnel performing surgery on patients in Al-Shifa hospital must have been knowingly functioning within Naim’s militarized  hospitals, and thereby aiding and abetting Hamas. An embedded journalist,  Kamaldien documented the activities of the South African medical teams inside Al-Shifa Hospital.

Ahmed Kahlot the hospital director  of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabaliya, Northern Gaza was arrested. Kahlot admitted that he was a lieutenant colonel in the Hamas terror organization since 2010. He also said that some 16 members of the hospital’s staff, including doctors, nurses, and paramedics, were Hamas operatives serving in the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the terror organization. And several members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades were also employed in the hospital. “They hide in hospitals because they believe that hospitals are a safe place,” Kahlot told the Shin Bet interrogator. “They will not be harmed if they are inside a hospital.”

US counter terrorism law

The US makes no distinction between Hamas’ so-called military wing and its political leadership. The US Presidential Executive order 13224 signed by President George W. Bush Sept. 23, 2001, gives far reaching powers to the US Treasury including the seizure of assets of organizations or individuals designated by the Secretary of the Treasury as terrorist activities.  The sanctions apply to individuals or entities which  assist, sponsor, or provide material or financial support or who are otherwise associated with terrorists.  The activities of GoG in Gaza and its close association with Hamas are concerns which may well arouse the attention of the US authorities under the new administration of President Trump.

SUMMATION

On the one hand GoG has an unmatched record of accomplishment in the field of humanitarian and medical relief to save and preserve human life, to reduce human suffering and bring comfort to distressed people in South Africa and internationally.

However, Dr Sooliman has concealed his support for the Islamist fundamentalist agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood.  The sophisticated and incessant media and public relations coverage accompanying the GoG humanitarian relief work has masked the active engagement with Muslim Brotherhood terror organizations, specifically Hamas. Thereby promoting their interests on the ground and their ideological agenda to bring about retribution against and the destruction of the State of Israel.

Cynical is Dr Sooliman’s flirtation with international law from a self-styled rejection of human made law . Apparently, he is misunderstood according to an indignant media article in Biz News, South Africa which claims –

“His advocacy for South Africa’s legal action against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is firmly rooted in international law, including the UN Charter and established norms prohibiting occupation and apartheid. The ICJ, a principal judicial organ of the United Nations, is precisely the forum where issues of international law should be addressed….

 GOTG’s work in Gaza aligns with IHL [International Humanitarian Law] principles of neutrality, impartiality, and humanity. The organization has repeatedly emphasized its focus on assisting civilians, irrespective of political or ideological affiliations.”

There is no greater manifestation of bad faith, hypocrisy and moral turpitude than seeking recourse in a legal forum by one who disrespects the authority and laws of that court. At common law, in certain areas of law such a party is barred under a doctrine known as unclean hands.  This equitable principle seeks to prevent abuse of the law which undoubtedly Dr Sooliman is committing.

It is clear that Dr Sooliman has been inspired by  Al-Qaradawi whose   Union of Good (I’tilaf al-Khayr) established a huge umbrella charity network of global Islamist organizations for the transfer of global funds to Hamas in Judea Samaria and Gaza. It diverted charitable donations to support Hamas members and the families of terrorist operatives and suicide bombers, dispensed social welfare and other services on behalf of Hamas.  The question is whether Dr Sooliman has followed in the footsteps  of Al-Qaradawi through his GoG organisation.  Consistent with the general Koranic philosophy of Teqiyaa, the philosophy of concealment, practiced by members of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaradawi’s teachings regarding living as a Muslim minority in a broader society, Sooliman has succeeded for long in concealing his ideological commitments and his association with proscribed terror supporting organizations. Social media used by him and his supporters have been used as a platform to distract, deceive, and incite anti-Israel rhetoric.  He is simply not just “a humble and dedicated doctor” and “a true dedicated Samaritan” as his supporters would have us believe. Far from being a global friend, he is emerging as one who despises secular law, espouses hatred and cold heartedly takes the side of terror.