As part of an alleged scheme, Qatari charities used the U.S. system to illegally transfer funds to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
By JNS
Qatar secretly provided funding for several terror attacks that killed Americans and Israelis, according to a lawsuit filed in New York on Wednesday seeking reparations for the families of the dead.
As part of an alleged funding scheme, Qatari charities utilized the U.S. financial system to illegally transfer funds to the U.S.-designated terrorist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), both of which have waged numerous attacks killing Americans and Israelis, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in accordance with the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), which allows U.S. persons injured in an international terrorist attack or the estate of those killed by terrorism to sue for damages in U.S. district court.
“Qatar coopted several institutions that it dominates and controls to funnel coveted U.S. dollars (the chosen currency of Middle East terrorist networks) to Hamas and PIJ under the false guise of charitable donations,” according to the lawsuit, whose plaintiffs include Stuart Force, whose son, Taylor, a West Point graduate who was stabbed to death in 2016 in a Palestinian terrorist attack in Tel Aviv.
A law to defund U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority, the Taylor Force Act, was enacted in 2018, in response to the Palestinian Authority’s program of rewarding terrorists and their families.
Three institutions named as defendants in the lawsuit include Qatar Charity, Masraf Al Rayan bank and Qatar National Bank. Masraf Al Rayan is currently under investigation in the United Kingdom for allegedly assisting Qatar Charity send funds to PIJ and Hamas.
“Qatar Charity solicited donations in Qatar and around the world and then transferred those funds to its account at Masraf Al Rayan bank in Doha, Qatar. Masraf Al Rayan bank then transferred those funds denominated in U.S. dollars through a correspondent bank in New York. Subsequently, those funds were transferred to Qatar Charity’s accounts at either the Bank of Palestine, or to the Islamic Bank in Ramallah,” according to the lawsuit.
“Finally, Qatar Charity’s local branches would distribute the funds in U.S. dollars from those local accounts to Hamas, PIJ and their affiliates to finance acts of terrorism in Israel.”