Giving to help Palestinians? Guess again you might be funding Hamas

Reda Mazen Rida Sabassi, a 38-year-old San Diego resident, was charged last month in a five-count federal complaint with funneling money to Hamas, the Palestinian terror group, under the guise of charity.Prosecutors say Sabassi used social media, crowdfunding platforms and a purported San Diego charity called Ikram — the “Arab Charity Foundation Inc.” — to raise money for helping Palestinians in Gaza while diverting funds to Hamas and to himself.Between December 2023 and February 2024, prosecutors say Sabassi raised approximately $600,000 through online campaigns; sent about $116,000 to a Hamas member; and tried converting roughly $382,000 into cryptocurrency through Gaza Now, a Hamas-linked fundraising operation later sanctioned by the Treasury Department.Less than two weeks later, federal prosecutors in New York charged Catherine Beth Washburn, 37, of Irondequoit, with attempting to provide material support to another terror group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad.Washburn is not accused of confusing charity with politics.

She is accused of trying to move money straight to a terrorist fighter.But in cases involving charitable front groups, the alleged fraud begins before the first transfer of money.It begins when civilian suffering is turned into a financial instrument.Donors believed they were helping Palestinians.

Real Palestinians in need had their misery used as fundraising collateral.Legitimate charities were damaged by the suspicion created by fake ones.

And the American public was again forced into the same absurd moral trap: Question the destination of the money and be accused of hostility to humanitarian aid; look away and risk becoming the collection arm of a terror ecosystem.That is why the Sabassi case matters beyond one defendant.It exposes how the humanitarian lane can be abused when emotion is faster than verification.The Hamas charity model was exposed in the Holy Land Foundation case, two decades ago, when a federal judge sentenced the f...