UNICEF's Curious Moral Blindness

By Ilan Weinglass

One has to wonder what the decision-making processes are are UNICEF.  As has been reported elsewhere, in June the United Nations Children's Fund, made two important financial decisions.  The first was to refuse donations from Lev Leviev, the Russian-Israeli billionare, due to his support of construction projects in the West Bank.  The second was to sign a memorandum of understanding with the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), to deliver charity services in Saudi Arabia. 

Two branches of the IIRO, though not the Saudi branch, have been designated as terrorist entities by the Treasury Department.  IIRO's Phillipine and Indonesian branches were designated for "facilitating fundraising for al Qaida and affiliated terrorist groups" with the Phillipine branch described as "a source of funding for the al Qaida-affiliated ASG [Abu Sayyaf Group]."  Indeed, according to Treasury, this branch was "founded sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s by Muhammad Jamal Khalifah, who is Usama bin Laden's brother-in-law and has been identified as a senior al Qaida member."  Further, and perhaps more sinister, the head of IIRO in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province "provided donor funds directly to al Qaida and is identified as a major fundraiser for the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI)."  Both the Phillipine and Indonesian branches are also listed by the U.N. itself for al Qaeda links.

In other words, at a minimum, the Saudi branch of IIRO is very closely linked to a virtual al Qaeda franchise, according to both U.S. and U.N. data. Further, a leading Saudi IIRO figure provided funds to al Qaeda and the same terrorist groups that the two designated IIRO branches funded.  Indeed, the fact that a branch is documented to have such serious terrorist associations puts the burden of proof on IIRO to exonorate itself - UNICEF should presume IIRO's Saudi Arabia headquarters are guilty until proven innocent. Willful blindness is about the most charitable characterization of the fact the U.N. is partnering with it.  A worthy question for further research is: what other criminal- or terrorist-linked groups is UNICEF partnering with?

UNICEF's partnership with the IIRO is thrown into sharper light given its refusal to cooperate with Leviev, since he is carrying out construction in a West Bank settlement.  Whatever one's feelings about West Bank settlements, it is very curious that UNICEF has discovered that in the case of al Qaeda, money is completely non-fungible, and three clear datapoints of support for al Qaeda can be defined out of existence.  Indeed, such links would probably be criminal violations of KYC requirements for any commercial bank. Yet in the case of israel, any vague hint of a connection to settlement construction suddenly sends up a red flag.  If Lev Leviev had only donated to a radical Islamist group, UNICEF might be gladly taking his money.