HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

In this past Summer of 2009 ,many in our community were working hard collecting money so needed medical supplies would be bought and send to help our people in the Gaza Stripe .More than $1.2 were collected according to the leadership of Viva Palestina. According to those same leaders only $245,000.00 (less than 20% ) were used to buy medical supplies .Since late July ,the local leaders of this effort have been dragging their feet trying to get the National Viva Palestina leadership explain were the rest of the money went .
Some of this local leadership is spear heading an effort of collecting funds so they can help Palestinian Refugees who were forced to leave Iraq, and who are coming to resettle in the United States. Over $65,000.00 in cash were collected so far , 3 cars and tens of Thousands of Dollars worth of used and new furniture and clothing’s .An internet wish list was established and our people and their friends got on their keyboards and showed their willingness to help the new comers.
Unfortunately, the same tactics that were used in getting our community to donate for Viva Palestina effort are being used for this project by the same leaders. Your mail box(es) are filled with coded messages that emphasis on the need for Emergency funds to help resettle the refugees .Thousands of dollars are coming in ,but some of the refugees are still calling in crying they do not have bread in their new homes so they can feed their kids.
Many attempts were taken to try to understand where this effort is heading ,and were the money being collected will be used since it’s not used to provide bread for the refugees ,but all these attempts were blocked .After more than three months of collecting money ,they are still calling for emergency fundraising .Were is the money going ? Is it being paid for office and staff, like Viva Palestina? Or is it going to be used for the reason people are told it will be used for? Unfortuantly no one knows, but we need to know, because it will be a shame if some small percentage of these thousands is used like in Viva Palestina .The money is there so who could explain why at least two out of the 4 families in San Diego called in crying for bread. Why assistance agencies whose only work is to help the refugees are being trashed by these people and community based organizations are asked not to help if the help was not to be credited for this leadership? Why many of our community leaders are shying away from this secretive always in emergency mode effort ,even though no tangible financial support for the refugee families has taken place here or anywhere else in the US. Why other communities are taking care of the refugees on their own and are not getting any financial support from the people who collected more than $65.000.00 so far.
There are many questions that needed to be answered by this always in an emergency mode leadership .They need to open up the books to all and tell us how much they collected so far, how much they spend and on what .We need to know how much cash they gave each the refugee families .Once they do this if they ever do it, we all will know that we are being subjected to another Viva Palestina fiasco led by some of the same people.
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