Israel targets Muslim charity in campaign to starve Palestinians

Islamic Relief has accused Israel of launching a smear campaign against the British-based charity after the freeing of its program manager for humanitarian projects in Gaza.

Ayaz Ali, who has worked for Islamic Relief for five years, returned to the UK Tuesday after being detained by the Israeli regime in a top security Ashkelon prison for the past three weeks without charge.

The charity said that the 36-year old program manager was held under West Bank military law, which limited his rights despite the fact that he was arrested at a checkpoint near Modain, west of Ramallah, under Israeli law.

Just hours before his deportation, the Israeli prime minister's office alleged that the Birmingham-based charity was a front group for terrorists, and accused Ali of funneling money to banned organizations and of storing neo-Nazi images in his computer.

But Islamic Relief's chief executive, Haroun Atallah, said the accusations were nothing more than a smear campaign against the international organization, which has worked in the occupied territories since 1994.

"I think it's a face-saving exercise because they arrested an innocent man, they held him for a long period of time, and they're trying to justify it," Atallah said.

The charity said that no reason was given for Ali's arrest other than "security concerns" and that his innocence was proved when a military judge on Monday ordered his release after saying there was insufficient evidence to justify his continued detention.

Reports suggest that Islamic Relief, which is one of 13 leading UK charities that make up the Disasters Emergency Committee response group, was targeted to deprive the Palestinians of all humanitarian aid to put pressure on the new Hamas-led government.

Previous campaigns against the charity led to the freezing of its funds until the British-based Palestinian charity was cleared by the UK's Charity Commission.