PROFITS from some of the voting on the Channel 4 series Celebrity Big Brother will go to a Palestinian charity declared a terrorist organisation by the US Government.

George Galloway, MP, has chosen the charity, Interpal, to benefit from text votes generated in his name during the three-week series. Interpal is one of the largest Muslim-led charities in Europe and funds humanitarian, educational and medical projects in the Palestinian territories. The Charity Commission in Britain said that it had found no evidence of Interpal links to terrorism.

Last August President Bush announced that America would block the bank account of Interpal, which has its headquarters in London, over alleged links with the militant group Hamas. The action was taken in response to a Hamas suicide attack that killed 20 passengers on a bus in Jerusalem. The US authorities declared Interpal a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” and a conduit through which other organisations could fund Hamas activities. The British Charity Commission froze Interpal’s assets four days later before it investigated the claim.

The US had failed to provide any evidence to back its accusations, the commission said. Israeli prosecutors claimed that funds donated by Interpal to help the Palestinian poor were unwittingly diverted to fund terror and support the families of suicide bombers.

Last November the charity was named on the charge sheet of a prosecution against a Hamas activist from the West Bank. He was remanded in custody, charged with distributing £6.2 million to support terrorist activities.

Interpal, which spends about £5 million a year, says that it keeps exhaustive records and audit trails of how its Palestinian partners spend money.

Last month the Board of Deputies of British Jews apologised to Interpal for calling it a terrorist organisation and reached an out-of-court libel settlement. Interpal is seeking a meeting with US Treasury officials in an effort to have the charity’s name taken off the list of suspected organisations.

Mr Galloway released a statement about Interpal which read: “Every smear against them has fallen away and the truth about their work amongst some of the most oppressed people on the Earth has prevailed.”

Channel 4 said that it had no reason to question Interpal’s suitability because it was a registered charity.

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