Middle East politics hits charity
The inclusion on a US terrorism watchlist has frozen South African charity Al Aqsa's bank accounts.
A South African charity that assists Palestinian orphans has decided to seek government intervention after two local banks froze its accounts because of its inclusion on a United States treasury sanctions list.
Melissa Hoole, the spokesperson for the Al Aqsa Foundation of South Africa, told the Mail & Guardian that it was a case of mistaken identity because there is an organisation in Germany with the same name that is said to be supporting Hamas in Palestinian territories and that appears on the American list. She said her organisation had no links with the German organisation.
Hoole said that First National Bank had sent the organisation a written notice of its intention to close its bank accounts on the basis of the listing on the US treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) list in September last year.
