BERLIN - Germany banned a donor organisation on Monday that has funnelled money to Hamas, saying its support for the Palestinian Islamist group meant it forfeited the right to exist.Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that by supporting Hamas, the donor group — the IHH (Internationale Humanitaere Hilfsorganisation) — had violated a clause in the German constitution on international goodwill.
The IHH called the ban a “disgrace” and said it would take immediate legal action against it.
De Maiziere said the Frankfurt-based IHH abused donors’ good intentions “to support a terrorist organisation with money supposedly donated for charitable purposes.”
“Organisations that directly or indirectly align themselves from German soil against Israel’s very right to existence have forfeited their right to form an association,” de Maiziere added in a statement.
IHH chairman Mustafa
“It’s macabre that the interior minister is punishing those looking after orphaned children instead of criticising the ones turning children into orphans,” he said in a statement. “We’re firmly convinced these measures will not stand up to any court in a country under the rule of law."