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The Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA) voted Nov. 22 to uphold the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) as the recipient of funds from their meal swipe charity program, despite concerns brought up by some RUSA council members and parts of the student body about the PCRF's connections to other organizations that have had ties to terrorist organizations.

At the end of every semester, Rutgers students have the option of donating up to two of their leftover meal swipes to a charity that RUSA votes on after an application process and a selection by the student council of presidents. The choices this semester were narrowed down to PCRF and the Foundation for International Medical Relief, and by a one-vote margin, RUSA voted to select PCRF as the recipient of the funds. The vote passed 18 to 6 with one abstention as controversy over the organization heated up on campus.

The organization raised some red flags to RUSA representative Avi Scher, who was concerned about the political angle of the charity and raised those concerns at a meeting Nov. 19. Scher read a 2004 New York Times article while researching the PCRF that reported that the Holy Land Foundation, a charity shut down by the U.S. government for funneling money to terrorist organizations, wanted to transfer $50,000 to the PCRF before its assets were frozen. Similar concerns were raised about alleged connections to the Global Relief Foundation, which was shut down for the same reason.

Scher was also concerned with some quotes from PCRF's founder and CEO, Steve Sosebee, in which he expressed support for Palestinians taking part in the Intifada terror war against Israel.

"I think it's pretty clear from all parties involved that it is a politically involved organization, and it is simply inappropriate to be an organization taking sides in an international conflict," Scher told The Jewish State Nov. 23. "[If it were a charity that] the entire university would be willing to support, then it should have found a much more appropriate choice."

The PCRF was founded in 2000 by Steven Sosebee in order to provide medical care to children in need in the West Bank in Gaza.

"Maybe the Palestine/Israel issue is political, we're not denying that, but we're trying to help kids who have nothing to do with politics," said Nora Whisnant, New Jersey chapter president of the PCRF, who came to the meeting to support the PCRF chapter at Rutgers. "It's not their fault that they're under siege."

The topic has been well-discussed in the Jewish and militant Islam-watchdog blogosphere, and PCRF-Rutgers chapter president Ghadeer Hasan said that Scher's information was mostly taken from these "unreliable sources" and "was taken out of context."

"I just want to say that there is no substantial evidence for these links that were previously mentioned," Hasan told a packed room of curious -- and concerned -- Rutgers students. "None of them (Sosebee's quotes) are documented, none of them are substantial, and if anything, they were taken out of context.... Please, find me anything substantial and recorded to prove this."

"We are one of the first non-profit organizations working in Palestine to get a license from the Treasury Department and to continue working there," Hasan added. "We work with the Israeli and Egyptian embassies, neither of which we would be able to do if we were connected to terrorist organizations."

In objection to Hasan's use of the word "Palestine" in place of Israel, she said, "maybe the word Palestine is political, but that's not the point."

Scher was also primarily concerned with the political statement that would be made when RUSA chose the PCRF.

"It is undecided amongst RUSA whether it is allowed to get involved politically," Scher said, referring to the recent New Brunswick wards referendum that RUSA eventually decided to support, but removed the language from the referendum that encouraged students to vote for wards. "What RUSA members voted against was to rescind a privilege that had recently been granted. When the PCRF was originally chosen, it won by a single vote. Clearly, it does not have full support, but logistical reasons of finding a new charity in limited time make it difficult."

RUSA representative John Astray told The Jewish State that he voted not to reconsider the charity -- meaning to continue using PCRF as the designated recipient of the meals -- because of the logistics involved in finding a new charity in limited time and his skepticism of the PCRF's ties to terrorist organizations.

"The two charities to decide from both had a similar mission," Astray said. "What it came down to for me was not the mission of the two organizations, but their technical capacity to raise donations through student volunteers and getting people to donate. PCRF had more volunteers at a Rutgers level in order to generate more revenue."

Astray said that he believes that RUSA can take a political stand, but he does not believe that choosing the PCRF is a political move.

"Are we actually supporting the conflict? No, we're supporting aid to children," Astray said. "I did not believe that it was a political decision [to support PCRF] and it would make further fundraising by any subsequent charity less feasible until, quite frankly, there would be no time left to fundraise... there was a time and a place for debate over the charity, and it did not happen then."

It has been reported that Scher took his information from a blog called "Militant Islam Monitor," but Scher told The Jewish State that he found a series of articles from Sosebee called "With Tears from Ramallah," published on a news site called MediaMonitors.com in 2000, which concerned him the most.

"This is someone's personal journal written and signed by Steven Sosebee," Scher said. "There's a four-part series called 'With Tears from Ramallah,' which is a description of his time living in Ramallah at the beginning of the Second Intifada. To me, that expresses his point of view. A blog has a negative connotation that it's written by a writer with no credentials. This is not a blog."

Scher said at the Nov. 19 meeting that Sosebee's quotes were crucial in his decision not to support PCRF because the founder of an organization is a key element in shaping the vision of that organization.

"I'm not saying that terrorists are involved, but his views are tied intimately to his vision for an organization," Scher said. "They may do humanitarian work, but Hamas is an internationally recognized terrorist organization and they also help hospitals and schools.... It comes down to not that you are not allowed to have a personal view, but that your organization represents what you say."