Gift of the Givers slams terror link

DONATIONS: ACCUSED OF FINANCING VIOLENT GROUPS

- Faizel Patel

Gift of the Givers founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman has hit back at allegations that his organisation is financing terrorism.

This comes after a Jewish human rights lawyer alleged in an open letter that Gift of the Givers donates money to groups blacklisted as terrorist organisations by the US government.

Lawrence Nowosenetz, former member of the Jewish Board of Deputies, objected to the Helen Suzman Foundation invitation to Sooliman to deliver the Helen Suzman memorial lecture in two weeks' time.

Nowosenetz, who now lives in Tel Aviv, in a letter published in The Times of Israel, said Suzman was a strong supporter of Israel and claimed that inviting Sooliman contradicted the liberal values of the former Progressive Federal Party MP.

"Not too long ago I might have joined you in celebrating this decision and event, believing him to be a majestic humanitarian of global proportions."

"However, unpalatable information has increasingly come to my attention which I am duty bound to raise with you, which puts a very different light on the persona of Dr Sooliman who we all think we know," Nowosenetz claimed.