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52512 , , ' " 01 Beit Hakeren, 10 Hata'as St. Ramat Gan 52512, Israel www.israellawcenter.org : Tel 972-3-7514175 : :Fax 972-3-7514174 : 212-591-0073 Tel (US):

7 October 2012

Tim Costello World Vision Australia GPO Box 399C Melbourne, Victoria 3001, by email: seak-king.huang@worldvision.com.au

Re: World Visions provision of aid to the terrorist front group - Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) Dear Mr Costello I am in receipt of your letter dated 27 September 2012 regarding the above issue. I can assure you that all statements made by myself and The Israel Law Centre in relation to the UAWC are backed up by detailed evidence which was contained in a dossier made available to various parties including AusAID approximately six months ago. We had assumed that you would, by now, have seen this detailed evidence backing up our claims but it is apparent from the comments in your letter that you have not seen it. We now provide this complete dossier to you in the form it was originally provided to AusAID in March/April 2012 (Original Dossier). You will see that the details in the Original Dossier itself address your attempted rebuttals of our allegations. These issues are also dealt with further below. UAWC is not registered with the Israeli Ministry of Justice Since the time of the creation of the Original Dossier, the Israel Law Centre has also conclusively confirmed that the crucial, repeated assertion that the UAWC is registered as a not for profit (NFP or amuta) organisation with the Israeli Ministry of Justice is false. We have obtained the entire file on the organisation with the Israeli amuta registration number 580255172 and the name , translated as Committee of Agricultural Work (CAW). We have also confirmed with AusAID that it is this organisation which World Vision claims is the UAWC, a claim repeated in your 27 September 2012 letter.

We have examined all the documents in this file and it is absolutely clear that the CAW is not the UAWC. We have summarised the numerous fundamental differences between the UAWC and the CAW in Annex 1 to this letter. We also provide you the complete amuta file (in Hebrew) which contains the original documents substantiating our claims (CAW Amuta File) and a cross referenced English summary of each document in the file (CAW English Summary). Different Names Despite the attempt in your 27 September 2012 letter to provide an explanation for the significant difference in the names of the UAWC and CAW, this fact alone renders worthless the copies of the annual amuta registration which appears to be the only evidence World Vision has tendered in support of this most crucial assertion. Once the names are different, the onus shifts to World Vision to prove that these differently named organisations are the same. No such evidence has been provided. Different Establishment Date The documents from the CAW Amuta file which establish its date of establishment as 1996 also include a list of its founding members and the goals of the organisation, such facts being the basic elements needed to create an amuta. Thus, contrary to your baseless assertion otherwise, these documents do constitute the establishment of the CAW under Israeli law in 1996. Different Jurisdiction of Existence These documents legally established the CAW as an Israeli entity and NFP organisation under Israeli law. Under Israeli law, an amuta is a type of legal entity not just a registration of NFP status. It is not legally possible to register a Palestinian based organisation as an Israeli amuta. Thus not only is the crucial, repeated assertion that the UAWC is registered as a not for profit (NFP or amuta) organisation with the Israeli Ministry of Justice false, it is actually legally impossible. Indeed I personally spoke to the external accountant who signed off the financial statements in the UAWCs 2009 annual report and he was perplexed when I asked if the UAWC was registered as an Israeli amuta. He correctly pointed out to me that the UAWC was a Palestinian organisation and thus was registered as a NFP in the Palestinian Authority and not in Israel. Different Heads of Boards While the UAWC Annual Reports and your own admissions make clear that Bashir Al Khairi, a Palestinian Arab and convicted terrorist, was the President of the UAWCs board of directors for most of the period World Vision has funded the UAWC, the CAWs board of directors has at all relevant times been headed by Khalid Hidmi, a person you describe as an Israeli Arab from East Jerusalem (but more correctly described as an East Jerusalem Arab1). This is consistent with the legal and practical reality that an Israeli amuta requires a person with
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The term Israeli Arab is generally considered to apply only to those Arabs holding Israeli citizenship. The term East Jerusalem Arab is generally considered to apply to Palestinian Arabs residing in East Jerusalem and holding Israeli identity papers but not Israeli citizenship.

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Israeli identity papers who is not a convicted terrorist to head it. I note that despite Khalid Hidmis title of General Director (as used in your letter) or Operations Director (as used in UAWC annual reports), he is not listed as a member of the UAWCs board of directors in 2009. You describe him as having the day to day running of the UAWC and thus he performs a General Manager type role but without being a member of the body which legally is the controlling hand of the UAWC, its board of directors. Entirely Different Board Members The CAW and UAWC also reported entirely different lists of board members in 2008/09. This also conclusively demonstrates that the CAW is not the UAWC. Dramatically Different Financial Positions In light of the substantial Australian funding of the UAWC, the most stunning differences between the UAWC and the CAW are revealed by the financial reports which the CAW has submitted to the Israeli amuta registry. The CAW is a tiny organisation with revenues and expenditures in the tens of thousands of dollars per year while the UAWC has revenues and expenditures in the millions of dollars per year. Furthermore, the CAW declared nil activity in 2004, 2005 & 2006 and labour costs of less than 0.1% of the UAWCs declared labour costs in 2009. Given that World Vision alone has provided many hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to the UAWC since 2005 and that many other Western donors have been providing similar amounts, there can be only two conclusions from this financial information. Either the CAW has deliberately and completely falsified its financial reports to the Israeli Ministry of Justice, or it is not the UAWC. Either conclusion completely undermines the enormous reliance which World Vision has placed on the supposed registration of the UAWC as a NFP by Israel, although the latter conclusion is supported by all the other circumstances outlined above. The repeated assertion by World Vision that the UAWC is registered as a NFP in Israel is not only demonstrably false, but it has been made over and over again up to the highest level of the Australian government. It is a lie that has been told in Parliament, by the Foreign Minister to the Australian people and in media statements from World Vision and AusAID. What is even worse is that it is an assertion that was made completely without evidence. Even the most cursory review of the amuta annual renewal documents should have revealed that they did not refer to the UAWC in English, Hebrew or Arabic. It goes without saying that the Australian legal system provides serious penalties for false and misleading statements by corporations and causing a Minister of the Crown to mislead the Parliament is a very serious issue.

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Unjustified Assumptions Israeli behaviour re UAWC Your 27 September 2012 letter sets out a number of incorrect assumptions made and inferences drawn regarding Israeli behaviour in relation to the UAWC. These incorrect assumptions and inferences appear to be the basis for World Visions failure to draw the correct conclusions from the detailed allegations regarding the UAWC of which World Vision has been aware for 6 months and for which World Vision now has the actual supporting evidence set out in the Original Dossier. I have set out below how each of these assumptions made and inferences drawn regarding Israeli behaviour in relation to the UAWC are false and baseless and arise from fundamental misunderstandings of the legal and factual situation. UAWC Amuta renewal Your first false assumption is that if the Israeli Ministry of Justice had any cause to accept our allegations against the UAWC it would refuse to renew the UAWCs amuta status annually. This is false for two reasons: 1) as noted above the UAWC does not have an amuta registration and our allegations relate to the UAWC not the CAW; 2) Shurat HaDin has not brought its allegations against the UAWC to the attention of the Israeli Ministry of Justice for precisely the reason stated above - the Ministry of Justice has no legal power to deal with the issue because the UAWC is not an amuta registered with them. Non listing of UAWC as a terrorist organisation by Israel Your second false assumption is that if the Israeli authorities believed that our allegations against the UAWC were correct surely the UAWC would have been included on Israels own list of terrorist organisations making it a crime under Israeli law to provide support to it. This assumption misunderstands the operation of both Israeli and Australia law on providing support to terrorist organisations. Both Australian and Israeli law list terrorist organisations and then make it a crime to directly or indirectly provide support. We have never suggested that the UAWC was an independent terrorist organisation that should be listed as such. What we have always argued is that as the UAWC was established by, is controlled by, shares assets with and operated in concert with the PFLP. Thus provision of support to the UAWC is indirect provision of support to the PFLP or alternatively the UAWC is a part of the PFLP. Thus the provision of funds to it is already illegal under Israeli law (and Australian law) without the UAWC itself having to be listed. Given the operation of the law to prohibit indirect funding of terror groups, it is unnecessary for Israel (or Australia) to list the UAWC. Furthermore, the listing of the UAWC would have the adverse consequence of extending the criminal liability net of indirect support for a terrorist organisation wider than would be reasonable. It could mean that not only were NGO organisations funding the UAWC criminally liable but donors to those NGOs themselves could be liable.

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However, while it is likely already a crime under Israeli law to provide of material support to the UAWC in light of the evidence in the Original Dossier, we are not aware of any evidence that anyone subject to Israeli jurisdiction is actually providing support to the UAWC. There are no Israeli organisations listed as donors to the UAWC on its website. Our understanding is that World Vision provides its funding to the UAWC directly from Australia to the UAWCs operations in Gaza without any Israeli involvement and thus no breach of Israeli law for which an Israeli Court would have jurisdiction is involved. If this is not the case then please provide us evidence of Israeli involvement so that prosecutions in Israel can be commenced against persons under Israeli jurisdiction. For the above reasons Shurat HaDin has not brought its allegations against the UAWC to the attention of the Israeli authorities responsible for such prosecutions. Israeli legal authorities have no jurisdiction over the UAWC nor those providing funds to it and thus would have no ability to take action regarding our allegations against the UAWC. While Israeli security and military authorities are active in West Bank Palestinian areas, they are focussed on defeating actual terrorist attacks. In Gaza, where World Vision funds the UAWC, Israel has no military presence on the ground and is not able even to prevent the direct funding by Iran and others of listed terrorist groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Qaida in Gaza. Thus it is difficult to see how they could take action against the UAWCs receipt of Australian funds in Gaza. The assumptions made and inferences drawn from Israel not listing the UAWC as a terrorist group are baseless and false. World Vision Australia is an Australian organisation giving Australian taxpayers money to the UAWC in Hamas governed and controlled Gaza and thus it is Australian law, not Israeli law that governs this conduct. Free movement of Khalid Hidmi Your suggestion that the free movement of Khalid Hidmi between Palestinian Authority areas and Israel in any way rebuts our allegations against the UAWC demonstrates yet another a fundamental misunderstanding of the operation of Israeli law. Israeli law provides for East Jerusalem Arabs to hold Israeli identity papers while at the same time remaining Palestinians and not holding Israeli citizenship. This is in contrast to Israeli Arabs who do hold Israeli citizenship. As a result East Jerusalem Arabs have a fundamental right to enter both Israel and Palestinian areas. This stands in contrast to Palestinian Arabs who need to seek permits to enter Israel. Thus as an East Jerusalem Arab, Khalid Hidmi has a fundamental right of free movement between Israel and Palestinian areas. Such a right could only be taken away if he was charged with a crime under Israeli law. Merely being an employee of an organisation controlled by an illegal terrorist group is not necessarily a crime under Israeli law, nor is it under Australian law. As noted above, he is not a director of the UAWC and nor is it alleged that he is a member of the PFLP.

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All these inferences drawn and assumptions made about the action or lack thereof of Israeli authorities, upon which you have placed so much weight, fundamentally misapprehend the legal and practical situation. On a proper analysis they do nothing to assist your ill advised defence of the UAWC and merely reveal the dangerous naivety and ignorance which has led World Vision to send millions of Australia taxpayer dollars to an organisation controlled by terrorists. Original Dossier - UAWC Directors You will see that the details in the Original Dossier itself address your attempted rebuttals in relation the five UAWC directors we have identified as being members of the PFLP. I have addressed the issues you have raised regarding each of the UAWC directors below. Bashir Khairi You have acknowledged that Bashir Khairi is a convicted PFLP terrorist. You have also acknowledged his 2001 arrest by Israel in relation to another PFLP terrorist attack. Our Original Dossier (pages 3 & 4) also contains information regarding his 2011 arrest by Israel as a top PFLP official and him acting as a top PFLP official as recently as January 2012. It also contains a link to a video of Bashir Al-Kheiri, member of PFLP leadership speaking at Hamas rally in Ramallah, Al Jazeera TV (Qatar), 23 September 2005 calling for conquest of cities in pre-1967 Israel. I note that Hamas is also a proscribed terrorist organisation under Australian law. This information rebuts your suggestion that Bashir Khari is somehow reformed. His involvement with a center for peace and reconciliation is merely a convenient cover for his ongoing senior leadership role in a murderous terrorist group. The information in the Original Dossier established that Bashir Khairi continued to be an active leader in the PFLP while has was President of the UAWC. That period coincided with World Vision funding of the UAWC. Jamil Ismail You assert that the Jamil Ismail listed as a UAWC director is not the Jamil Muhammad Ismail alMajdalawi who you acknowledge is a senior PFLP figure. However our Original Dossier contains photographic evidence positively identifying them as the same person. (See page 4 and 5 of the Original Dossier). Please provide evidence to support your claim that they are different people. Faysal Khalafallah While we acknowledge that Faysal Khalafallah is now deceased, he died quite recently in May 2011 and he was on the UAWC Board in 2009 when World Vision was funding the UAWC. Indeed our extensive material on his membership of the PFLP and involvement in military terrorist activities for the PFLP comes from his funeral orations. (See page 7 point c of Original Dossier)

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Taghreed Joma The information in Original Dossier establishes that she attended a PFLP "feminist" martyr's association event and is described as being on the Gaza central committee of the PFLP (page 7 point b of Original Dossier). Razeq al-Barghouti You have acknowledged his known association with the PFLP and our Original Dossier provides further evidence of this. Thus, apart from the possibility that Jamil Ismail has been incorrectly identified as Jamil Muhammad Ismail al-Majdalawi, despite the photographic evidence to the contrary, all our original claims regarding the UAWC directors stand, despite you having had 6 months to provide actual evidence in rebuttal. Original Dossier - Other Issues Use of UAWC facility for PFLP 42nd Anniversary Our Original Dossier provides the source of our information that the PFLP celebrated its 42nd anniversary at the UAWC hall in Khan Younis on 12 December 2009. Our source does not suggest it was a large public event held entirely inside the UAWC hall and the event may well have extended outside the hall as well. Thus the size of the hall is irrelevant. Please provide your evidence that this did not occur. Coordination and Advancement of PFLP Interests Your comments regarding the UAWCs coordination and advancement of the PFLPs interests misapprehend the both the law with regard to support of terrorist organisation and the practical reality. It is not necessary for the UAWC to advocate or participate in terrorist violence for the provision of support for it to be illegal. I draw your attention to the words of the United States Supreme Court cited in our first letter to you regarding this issue. In the case of Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, 561 U.S. (2010), 130 S. Ct. 2705 (2010) it found that providing any assistance or support to designated terrorist groups, include putatively benign forms of assistance (such as agricultural aid) is criminal. In Holder the Court stated: Moreover, material support meant to promote peaceable, lawful conduct can be diverted to advance terrorism in multiple ways. The record shows that designated foreign terrorist organizations do not maintain organizational firewalls between funds raised for humanitarian activities and those used to carry out terrorist attacks. The evidence in the Original Dossier regarding the UAWCs coordination and advancement of the PFLPs interests serves to further demonstrate that the UAWC is effectively an arm of the PFLP, acts in its interests and is controlled by it. Furthermore, it should be noted that opposing loss of arable land is not the agricultural or environmental issue that it would be in Australia or many other places in the world. -7-

Land, including arable land, is central and fundamental to the PFLPs violent opposition to Israel. The PFLP exists to liberate Palestine, from the river to the sea, from the Zionist entity. In other words to destroy Israel as a state and expel Jews from the entire area of 1947 mandatory Palestine. This includes Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa etc as the former UAWC President Bashir Al Khairi stated in his speech at the Hamas rally in Gaza referred to above. The UAWC directly works towards this PFLP goal by actively and using often violent protests attacking Israel regarding the issue of land to prevent or undermine effective Israel security measures. This includes in Gaza where arable land is used as a launching pad for the tens of thousands of rockets launched against Israeli civilians over the last 15 years. It also includes regular violent protests against the West Bank Security Fence. The UAWC is actively involved with these often violent protests and advertises this on its website. Evidence of this is set out at Annex 2. The Real UAWC The UAWC is controlled by and is an active arm of the murderous PFLP terrorist organisation which is now being acknowledged as behind the worst terrorist attack on Australian soil - the 1982 bombing of the Hakoah Club and Israeli Consulate in Sydney. It is not surprising that an organisation willing to murder is also willing to lie and deceive to obtain western funding for its front organisations. This western funding lines the pockets of senior terrorists who sit on the UAWC board, helps build grassroots support for the PFLP through the numerous agricultural work committees which the UAWC provides money to, funds illegal violent activities against the Israeli security fence and supports boycott, divestment sanctions activities against Israel. Evidence of this is set out at Annex 2. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon recently called on the international community to stop donating money to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if that money goes to terrorists and their families. "It is more profitable today to be a Palestinian terrorist than to be a nurse or teacher," he said. "About 50% of the Authority's budget is redirected toward Gaza, which is ruled by the Hamas terrorists," the diplomat added. Moreover, since The Israel law Centre produced its Original Dossier, it has come to light that three other UAWC executives, including a new UAWC director Ahmad Soufan have been arrested by Israel for terrorist involvement. See article in Annex 2. The Israel Law Centre calls upon World Vision to take responsibility for misleading the Australian public and sending taxpayers money to terrorists while acknowledging that they have been the victims of a scam run by the PFLP terrorists to dupe naive westerners into giving millions to its front group the UAWC. The Israel Law Centre requires World Vision to announce and implement a complete cessation of funding for the UAWC by 15 October 2012. If not, The Israel Law Centre will bring legal proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia seeking a declaration that funding of the UAWC is a criminal breach of s 21 of the Charter of the United Nations Act 1945, as well as claims for -8-

misleading and deceptive conduct and administrative law remedies against relevant government officials. Yours sincerely,

Andrew Hamilton Solicitor, NSW

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Annex 1 - Evidence that the CAW is not the UAWC


Organisation Name English Full Name Arabic Full Name (transliterated into English) UAWC ithad = union of lujan = committees alamal = works alzirai = agricultural Not registered CAW lajnat = committee of alamal = works alzirai = agricultural ' 580255172 Israel 1996 (Source: Document 911009)

Union of Agricultural Work Committees Committee of Agricultural Works

Name on Israeli NFP register (Arabic transliterated into Hebrew) Israeli NFP registration no. None Established in Jurisdiction Year founded Activity 2004 - 2006 Board President / Chairman 2008/9 Board Members 2008/9

Palestinian Authority 1986 (Source DIS Report 1993)

Operations Director Labour Costs 2008/9

2003 Annual Report / Financial Statements

Extensive activity documented in 2005 & Nil activity for 2004, 2005, 2006 declared 2006 UAWC Annual Reports including to Israeli NFP registry reference to World Vision funding. (Source: Document 910950) Bashir al Kheri (President) a Palestinian Khalid Hidmi (Chairman) an Israeli Arab Arab (Source:UAWC 2009 Annual (Source: Document 910954) Report) Bashir al Kheri*, Jamil Ismail*, Razeq al Khaled Hidmi, Zachariah Oda, Nagwa Barghouthi*, Renad Hajaj, Ali Sa'adi, Zayad Kimri Hassouneh, Walid Abu Sharar, Abd al (Source: Document 910954) Nasser Faraj, Ismat al Shuleh, Taghreed Jom'a, Mohammad al Saqa, Faysal Khalafallah*, Majdi Yaghee, Manal Awwad (Source:UAWC 2009 Annual Report) Khalid Hidmi (Source: UAWC 2005 Annual Report) 33 million NIS Around 28 thousand NIS (Source: UAWC 2009 Annual Report) Only One Employee in list of Highest Paid Employees: Masri: 27, 636 NIS (Source: Document 910953) Very extensive activities and numerous Very low revenues (around $10,000), only foreign donors, including World Vision one employee & very limited activity. reflective of very high revenues (Millions (Source: Documents 910952 & 910992) of $) (Source: UAWC 2003 Annual Report: http://uawc.net/images/abb7.pdf)

* Known PFLP terrorist: See Shurat HaDin Dossier of Evidence.

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Annex 2 - Additional Evidence re the UAWC A. UAWCs involvement in BDS & Security Fence protests
Extracts from UAWC website on its activities: 1. Here is a description of the purpose of the UAWC's newsletter "Farmer's Voice". [Emphasis added] http://74.50.79.174/farmervoice.htm

We publish our electronic newsletter hoping to cover part of the reality of the Palestinian rural society and what UAWC offers to the agricultural sector aiming at the achievement of sustainable development. We are pleased to develop this electronic newsletter so as to reach to a larger number of Palestinians and internationals as well. Our aim is to express the voice of Palestinian farmers and rural society. We have chosen the title 'Farmers' Voice' because we believe that Palestinian farmers are the ones most affected by the the Israeli occupation's policies, such as land confiscation, the construction of the Apartheid Wall, bypass roads, the construction of settlements, land confiscation, demolishing houses, uprooting trees, imposing siege and closure, division of the West Bank into small cantons, flooding Palestinian markets with Israeli products, and other policies practiced everyday to marginalize farmers and impoverish them.

2. Here is a detailed description and link on the UAWCs website to the organisation conducting violent anti-security fence protests. http://74.50.79.174/links.htm

3. See below the UAWCs involvement in Boycott, Divestment Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. http://www.palestinecampaign.org/Index5b.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=19&l2_id=55 http://www.jwire.com.au/featured-articles/palestinian-group-funded-by-australia-backs-ukboycott/24853

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4. Here is a description of how the UAWC spends overseas aid money on political protests and takes volunteers to Security Fence demonstrations against Israel. http://74.50.79.174/news-events/lastnews/news14102009e.asp

Union of Agricultural Work Committees Receives Volunteers from Japan


14-10-2009 Ramallah UAWC welcomed a delegation of Japanese volunteers who have come to Palestinian lands to take part in the olive harvest season. They were escorted to the village of Nilin, West of Ramallah, to assist farmers who are unable to reach their lands. They also visited locations near the Apartheid Wall and met with the local agricultural committee. They also participated in the weekly demonstration against the Apartheid Wall in Nilin village.

UAWC launched its campaign Empowering the Steadfastness of Palestinian Farmers, which aims at enrooting and maintaining the notion of solidarity through youth volunteer activities in order to provide assistance for the helpless farmers in terms of harvesting and collecting olives, especially in hot-zones near the Apartheid Wall and Israeli settlements. It also aims at supporting and assisting Palestinian farmers in accessing their lands and in providing protection for their lives during their work in the fields from the dangers of Israeli army forces and settlers. In addition, the campaign serves as an attempt to convey the voices and appeals of Palestinian farmers, and their message of their sufferings and anguish, to the outside world through the active participation of European and foreign volunteers. The Campaign is funded by the Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA) within the framework of Protecting Our Right in Life Project.

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B. Another UAWC Director and staff arrested for terror involvement


http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/news/news/5106-intensified-arrestcampaign-against-palestinian-farmers-organizers-.html

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Intensified arrest campaign against Palestinian farmers, organizers


WEDNESDAY, 22 AUGUST 2012 07:04 UNION OF PALESTINIAN AGRICULTURAL COMMITTEES

As they organize to defend their land and Palestinian farming against the onslaught of settlements and siege, Palestinian agricultural workers and organizers have been subject to an intensified arrest campaign in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. We write to demand an immediate end to the targeting of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) and all Palestinian farmers and agricultural workers, and the freedom of the Palestinian organizers imprisoned for defending their rights.

UAWC in support of farmers in Gaza A number of staff of the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), a Palestinian grassroots organization that organizes Palestinian farmers to defend their land and develop their products, have been targeted in recent days for arrest by Israeli occupation forces. On July 31, Dr. Moayad Ahmad Bisharat, the coordinator of UAWC's Jericho office was abducted at dawn from his home. The UAWC office in Jericho was then ransacked by Israeli forces, which confiscated the computers, laptops, and files of the organization. This is the most recent in a series of arrests of UAWC activists in recent weeks, including the Director of Development and Operations, the engineer Fouad Abu Saif on July 26 in an early morning raid on his home in Hebron, in which his computer, mobile phone and other communication devices were seized. The director of the UAWC Jericho office, Mohammad Nujoom was abducted on July 16 as he re-entered Palestine from abroad. Both were taken to the Moskobiya compound for interrogation. In addition, UAWC Board Member Ahmad Soufan, held in administrative detention for one year, was recently ordered into a third term of six months in arbitrary administrative detention without charge or trial. Two other UAWC leaders, Abdel Razzak Farraj, administrative and financial director, and Board member Dr. Yousef Abdul Haq, were both finally released from administrative detention after multiple renewals of their imprisonment. UAWC confirms that these arrests are part and parcel of the ongoing attacks on Palestinians' right to the land, including massive settlement building, land confiscation, home demolitions, and the construction of the apartheid wall, as well as the siege and firing on farmers and agricultural workers in Gaza. The UAWC called on international organizers to defend Palestinian national rights and

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C. PFLP involvement in worst terror attack on Australian soil Australia reopens terror case after reportedly interviewing bomber in U.S. jail
August 26, 2012
SYDNEY (JTA) Australian counterterror agents have reopened an investigation into the bombings of the Israeli Consulate and a Jewish social club in Sydney 30 years ago. In the rst Australian counterterror cold case ever to be reopened, police conrmed Saturday that they had established a special strike force called Operation Forbearance to investigate the two bombings on Dec. 23, 1982. Detectives traveled in May to an American jail to interrogate a prime suspect, Jordanian-born Palestinian Mohammed Rashid, local media reported. But the police at a news conference Sunday neither conrmed nor denied whether members of Operation Forbearance had interviewed him. Rashid, 65, is serving a seven-year sentence at a federal prison in Indiana for the bombing of a Pan Am ight from Japan to Hawaii in August 1982. A passenger was killed and 15 were injured. Australian detectives believe that Rashid, who is scheduled to be released in March, also was behind the bombings of the Israeli Consulate and the Hakoah Club. No one was killed in either bombing, which occurred hours apart, although two people were injured at the consulate. The bomb in the car park underneath the Hakoah Club, a popular Jewish social club in Bondi, was designed to collapse the building, police believe. Mohammed Ali Beydoun, then a 32-year-old Lebanese-Australian citizen, was charged with the Hakoah bombing but the case was dropped by the New South Wales attorney general due to insufcient evidence. It has long been suspected that the perpetrators were members of the Iraqi-based May 15 terror organization. Operation Forbearance detectives are now seeking Husayn Muhammad al-Umari -- known as Abu Ibrahim, or the bomb man who like Rashid was at the forefront of the May 15 organization. Umari is accused of preparing the bomb on Flight 830 to Hawaii that was planted by Rashid. The FBI is offering a $5 million rewaerd for information leading directly to his capture or conviction. Umari, a Jaffa native, has a Lebanese passport, according to the FBI. May 15, sometimes known as the Abu-Ibrahim Faction, was a Baghdad-based offshoot of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Founded in 1979, it claimed credit for the bombings of El Al ofces in Rome and Istanbul, as well as bombings of Israeli embassies in Vienna and Athens, according to the Encyclopedia of Terrorism. We welcome the fact that new evidence seems to have come to light that might help solve this case, Yair Miller, the president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, told Sydneys The Sun-Herald newspaper. Jeremy Jones, a former president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry who has compiled the annual report on anti-Semitic incidents in Australia since the late 1980s, told Channel Seven news that Its very promising that we now know this matter hasnt ended. "

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D. Does Agricultural Aid to Gaza even make sense?


See below information suggesting a gross mismatch between the amount of aid being given to the UAWC and the actual productive value of agricultural land in Gaza. Australia's total aid to the UAWC in Gaza is $9 million over about 9 years ($4.7M to date and $4.3 further budgeted). The UAWC's annual revenues from donations are 37 million NIS = $10 million (approximately). This includes donations from many other international donors. Australia's contribution is approximately 10%. There is a real question as to why Australia is spending so much money supposedly funding agriculture in a very small and very dry area of the world such as Gaza. The analysis below proceeds on two basic axioms: The value of agricultural land is directly related to its productive capacity because agricultural products are global traded commodities. The productive value of agricultural land is directly related to its size and water availability (rainfall & other irrigation). $9 million is more than total area of Gazan farm land would be worth in Australia Gaza has only 17,500 hectares of arable land and only 300mm per year annual rainfall. Due to constant Gazan terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, including 10,000s of rockets and missiles, only approximately 10,000 hectares is actually available for cultivation. Sources: ingaza.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/how-israeli-policies-and-attacks-have-ravaged-gazasagricultural-sector/ www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20002985? uid=3738240&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=47698958594217 To put this in perspective, for much less than the $9 million Australia is giving the UAWC you could easily buy a substantially larger amount of quality Australian agricultural land than the entire cultivatable area of Gaza. This land would have higher rainfall and be well irrigated (although not 100% would be irrigated) A much studied, highly productive, rural area of Australia with equivalent rainfall (328mm) to Gaza is the Barwon Darling (river) Region. Source: MurrayDarling Basin Authority 2010, Guide to the proposed Basin Plan www.clw.csiro.au/publications/waterforahealthycountry/mdbsy/pdf/barwon-darling-report.pdf In this area you can buy much more for much less than Australia's aid to the UAWC. See eg: www.realestate.com.au/property-other-nsw-walgett-7262231 (A 6,701.7 hectares rural property in northern NSW with 400mm rainfall and 16km of river frontage selling for $2.32 million)

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www.realestate.com.au/property-livestock-nsw-bourke-7394396 (A 8,722 hectares rural property in north western NSW with 375mm rainfall and 2 bores selling for $580,000)

Even with 100% effective irrigation there is a gross mismatch The prices above reflect the fact that the productive value of unirrigated agricultural land in the Barwon Darling Region is only $25 per hectare and the irrigated value is $2487 per hectare. Source: MurrayDarling Basin Authority 2010, Guide to the proposed Basin Plan: overview, pg 95). Gaza has no rivers but relies on groundwater wells. Water use for irrigation in Gaza is around 87 million cubic meters per year (MCM). Source: www.ewash.org/files/library/Factsheet%206%20-%20A4.pdf. (2009) Thus 8700 cubic meters (8.7 Megalitres) per hectare per year based on current 10,000 hectares cultivatable. This is almost the the same as the annual irrigation water use per hectare in NSW (8.4 ML/ha/yr). Source: www.murrayriver.com.au/about-the-murray/water-use-and-consumption/ Thus if all Gazan agricultural land was in a fully irrigated state equivalent to highly irrigated parts of Australia, its maximum total productive value is approximately $25 million. At 36% of the total productive value of all Gazan farm land, Australia's $9 million budget allocation to the UAWC is out of all proportion to the value of agriculture in Gaza. As noted above, Australias funding of the UAWC is only about 10% of its annual budget and this is not the only AusAID funding for Gazan agriculture. AusAID is also funding APHEDA's agricultural charity in Gaza under the same AusAID program, presumably also for millions of dollars.

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