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No doubt Hamas is pleased to read this in the NY Times:

Europe Reacts Coolly to Bush's Call to Freeze Charities' Assets
By CRAIG S. SMITH

ARIS, Aug. 23 — Europe has reacted tepidly to President Bush's call to freeze the assets of four European charities said by the administration to be sending cash to Palestinian militants. That sets the stage for another trans-Atlantic rift over Middle East policy.

Rudolf Gollia, a spokesman for Austria's Interior Ministry, said the country's counterterrorism agency had already investigated one of the groups, the Palestinian Association in Austria, and had found no evidence of wrongdoing. "Under Austrian law there were no grounds for punitive action," Mr. Gollia told the Austria Press Agency late on Friday after Mr. Bush had spoken.

Both French and European Union officials said any decision on freezing assets would probably be made jointly by European foreign ministers over the next few weeks and would require a thorough review of the charities' activities.

"The European ministers and experts will look at the question and there will be a 15-country debate," a French diplomat said here today, adding that only then would there be a decision. The ministers are scheduled to meet in Italy on the first weekend in September.

Mr. Bush demanded Friday that the assets of five charities be frozen along with those of six top officials of Hamas, the Palestinian organization whose military wing has claimed responsibility for the deadly suicide attack on a Jerusalem bus on Tuesday.

Four of those organizations are based in Europe: the French-based Committee for Welfare and Relief for Palestine; the Palestinian Relief Association in Switzerland; the Palestinian Relief and Development Fund, or Interpal, with headquarters in Britain; and the Palestinian Association in Austria. The fifth charity, the Sanabil Association for Relief and Development, is based in Lebanon.

Mr. Bush's demand highlights a stark difference between how the United States and Europe, with its large and growing Muslim population, have dealt with Palestinian activists. Europe has resisted Bush administration requests that it blacklist Hamas's political wing, which many European leaders contend is a legitimate organization.

The administration's call for cooperation by "all nations supportive of peace in the Middle East" again casts Europe as a potential impediment to American foreign policy, as it was in the months ahead of the Iraq war. United States pressure on Europe to comply also risks reopening rifts within the 15-member European Union that yawned wide during the Iraq debate when some countries supported Washington and others did not.

The European Union has labeled Hamas's military wing a terrorist organization. But the question of freezing assets of the group's political wing, let alone those of charities that many Europeans consider vital to providing services to the Palestinian people, remains divisive.

While individual European countries are free to bar organizations unilaterally, they have agreed to operate jointly. In part that is meant to improve efficiency — with a common banking system, any freeze on assets in one European country could easily be sidestepped by transferring those assets to another — but there is also the wish to maintain a unified Middle East policy. "Clearly it's an issue of foreign policy where the European Union wants to stay together," said Joost Korte, deputy chief of cabinet for Christopher Patten, the European commissioner for external affairs.

The charities themselves reacted angrily today, saying that they had no links to Hamas and that their funds were not diverted from humanitarian ends.

Ibrahim Hewitt, the chairman of Interpal, said his organization was investigated for similar allegations in 1996 by Britain's Charity Commission, a regulatory body, and given a clean bill of health. Since then, he said, it has maintained close contacts with the commission and the local police. "I would hope that the government would go along with what their own civil servants advise," he said.

A spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office said today that any action against Interpal would be up to the Charity Commission.

Mr. Hewitt said he did not know how his group got on the United States blacklist. A recent Federal Bureau of Investigation report linked Interpal with an American-based charity whose assets the Bush administration froze in 2001 for supporting Hamas's military wing. But Mr. Hewitt said the only link was a $66,000 wire transfer from the United States charity to his group for providing meat from slaughtered sheep for religious feasts in the Middle East.

He said he had no knowledge of Hamas activists who the F.B.I. has charged are members of some charities to which his organization sends money. "We don't deal with individuals," he said. "We operate through charities over there that are registered with the Palestinian and Israeli authorities and we have a very bureaucratic paper trail to ensure that we know how the money is being spent."

He called on the United States to provide evidence that the named organizations were helping finance militant activities. "If we've done wrong, tell us and we'll correct it," he said.

Youcef Benderbal, spokesman for the Committee for Welfare and Relief for Palestine, said his organization was "shocked and revolted" to be associated with Hamas.

"I am amazed," he said, "that the president of a country such as the United States would mix things up like he did, and take it out against a humanitarian organization."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/24/international/europe/24HAMA.html?ex=1062302400&en=12f3b0841c3c6eb7&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE