VZCZCXRO4724
OO RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDE RUEHGI RUEHJS RUEHKUK RUEHLH RUEHPW RUEHROV
DE RUEHRB #0593/01 1790831
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 270831Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY RABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8768
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV PRIORITY 3539
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 1952
INFO RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 0830

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 RABAT 000593 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR NEA/MAG, NEA/RA AND OIC SPECIAL REP CUMBER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EFIN EAID PTER ECON IS MO
SUBJECT: THE OIC'S JERUSALEM FUND AGENCY ASKS FOR USG HELP 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary and Action Request:  Abdelkebir Alaoui 
M,Daghri, Director General of the Morocco-based Agence Bayt 
Al-Mal al Qods (the Jerusalem Fund Agency) appealed to 
Ambassador Riley in a June 13 meeting for USG help in 
attesting to the bona fides of his organization.  The Agency, 
subordinate to the Jerusalem Committee of the Islamic 
Conference (OIC), was empowered by the OIC to preserve the 
Islamic character of Jerusalem,s holy places and support the 
local population.  So far it has had modest, mostly 
Moroccan-government support, and thus limited impact. 
Fund-raising, particularly from major private donors has been 
hampered by donors, fears about terrorism finance 
restrictions.  M,Daghri, a royal appointee and former 
Minister of Religious Affairs, noted that he will travel to 
the U.S. this summer.  USG views on his request, including 
the assessment of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv of agency 
activities, would be appreciated.  End Summary and Action 
Request. 
 
An Islamic Conference (OIC) Agency 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Ambassador Riley paid a courtesy call on Mohammed 
Alaoui M'Daghri, Director General of the Agence Bayt Al-Mal 
al Qods (the Jerusalem Fund Agency or, hereafter, the Agency) 
on June 13.  The Agency was established by the Jerusalem 
Committee of the Organization of the Islamic Conference 
(OIC), which is headed by King Mohammed VI, who named 
M'Daghri to the job.  M,Dagrhi characterized the agency,s 
mission as a humanitarian not a political one.  It supports, 
he said, the people and institutions of the holy city, and 
works on housing, health, education, and culture.  Its 
primary institutional contacts are the Islamic holy sites and 
the Palestinian Authority.  In effect, he explained, the PA 
is the agency,s client, pointing to a photograph of him with 
King Mohammed VI and PA President Abbas. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) M'Daghri described a sort of three-level control 
system for the Jerusalem Fund Agency.  At the top there is a 
Board of Trustees made up of the Islamic Foreign Ministers, 
with financial oversight by the OIC Finance Ministers.  King 
Mohammed VI appointed him and provides some overall 
oversight.  The agency's contact with Israeli officials goes 
through the Palestinian Authority, but it allows the agency's 
activities to proceed.  The Jordanians also have a certain 
role, including with respect to the holy places. 
 
Agency Programs 
--------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) M'daghri said he had recently returned from 
Jerusalem where the Agency was facilitating construction of 
an additional floor for a school in the Abrahamite University 
of Jerusalem.  It had also paid for an elevator in Mkassid 
Hospital.  It has restored a home for the aged and given 80 
computers to a school for orphans.  It has also restored five 
mosques and a ziyouaia (a Moroccan term for a shrine for a 
saint) in what was known as the Maghrebi or Moroccan quarter. 
 Some 60 families now live in the shrine area and the Agency 
is currently trying to restore these ruined areas to livable 
housing for them.  The Israeli police came to question this 
project but left satisfied it was legitimate, he said. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) M'daghri said the Fund also currently feeds 100 
families with 20 loaves of bread per day:  It planned to 
expand this shortly to 500 families and ultimately 1,000 
families.  It provides interest-free loans for rehabilitation 
of housing.  A staffer added that the fund also provides 
scholarships to 36 students to study abroad in the U.S., 
France, Morocco and U.A.E.  The Fund wants to expand this to 
80 or 100 students as soon as money is available.  It is 
important that these young Palestinians have alternatives so 
that they are not tempted to become extremists. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) M'daghri noted the Agency also works to promote 
tolerance.  It paid for a new roof on a Christian cultural 
center and created a conference center for the Dialogue of 
Civilizations, located inside "the Morocco House" in 
Jerusalem.  In its programs, it provides assistance without 
discrimination; "If a Jew arrives, we take care of him," 
M'daghri said.  M'daghri stressed repeatedly and 
categorically, "We do not cooperate with anyone with a 
disposition to violence."  It vets its grantees with the PA 
and local authorities. 
 
RABAT 00000593  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶7.  (SBU) M'daghri said the Fund had many projects on the 
drawing board, but it needed funding, which it hoped to 
obtain from Arab states and private sources.  Thus far, 60 
percent of its funding comes from Morocco.  Two-thirds of 
that is from the state and one third from private donations, 
which come through its well publicized "555" account.  King 
Mohammed VI recently sent a letter to Arab heads of state 
urging them to contribute. 
 
A Request for a USG vetting 
--------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) M'daghri said the fund needed some kind of clean 
bill of health or "green light," from the USG to facilitate 
its fund raising.  Countries and private donors who otherwise 
could support the Jerusalem Fund were reluctant due to 
apprehension about U.S. anti-terror financing rules. 
M'daghri said he understood and supported these terror 
financing restrictions, and they did not affect the Fund 
directly, but they have made doQs reluctant.  The Fund has 
made an effort to open deposit accounts in banQhrougQ 
the Arab world.  The banks have done their due diligence, he 
said, but they tell the Agency that to operate they need some 
sort of statement of no objection from the Federal Reserve 
Bank in New York.  "We are ready to offer total 
transparency," he said, including any audit or other detailed 
financial or other examination the USG wished to undertake. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Ambassador Riley thanked M'daghri and noted that he 
would convey this information and request to Washington.  He 
noted that restrictions on finance for terrorists were very 
important and had been effective, including as a deterrent. 
Rules and procedures are complex and there are a variety of 
lists and databases, so this was an issue that would be up to 
specialists. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) M'daghri also provided some documentation, 
including a highly ambitious mid- to long-term plan.  The 
Agency has a very general roster of proposed projects through 
December 2009 worth USD 25 million and for 2010-2014, USD 65 
million, which would include projects for Muslims in the 
Western World.  These are big plans, considering the 
organization's modest history.  According to its website, 
however, the Agency has spent only a very modest USD 1.8 
million since 1996 in Jerusalem on housing, education, health 
care and youth programs. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Background:  The Jerusalem Committee is a subgroup 
of the Islamic Conference at the head of state level, chaired 
by the Moroccan King, which is intended to coordinate 
policies to preserve the city of Jerusalem's Arab and Islamic 
character.  The Bayt Mal Al-Quds Al-Charif ("the Agency") was 
set up by King Hassan II in 1997 as a funding arm of the 
Jerusalem Committee, intended to pool funds for development 
projects that "preserve Jerusalem's Islamic and Arab 
character and safeguard its civilization, religious, cultural 
and architectural heritage."  Subsequent to the visit, the 
Agency distributed a press release about the Ambassador's 
visit and placed an account and photo on its website: 
www.baytmalalqods.org. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) M'daghri's office contacted us separately and 
indicated that he plans to travel to the U.S. for 10 days on 
July 26.  He has been invited to participate in a Yale 
University conference on religious tolerance and also plans 
to be in New York. 
 
Comment and Action Request 
-------------------------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU) The diplomatic contributions of the Jerusalem 
Committee and the material contributions of the Agency have 
been both more symbolic than substantive.  They both, 
however, support King Mohammed VI's standing as an Islamic 
leader on the world stage and also promote Morocco's 
relevance and ability to engage in the Arab-Israeli peace 
process.  The new headquarters of the Agency in Rabat may 
well be worth more than the total of its projects, and its 
budget may be more that the expenses it is incurring in the 
field.  Nonetheless, the Agency could be in a position to 
work in the sensitive area of the Temple Mount, without 
carrying the risk of other outside bodies, and it could help 
build confidence.  We understand that providing any kind of 
 
RABAT 00000593  003 OF 003 
 
 
USG endorsement or even a clean bill of health, as M'daghri 
has requested, may be highly problematic. 
 
¶14.  (SBU) Washington's reaction to M'daghri's somewhat 
unusual request would be most welcome.  This certainly 
presents an opportunity to at least review the agency,s 
financing/operations.  It could also be useful to learn what 
perspectives the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority have 
on the institution aQits request.  End Comment and Action 
Request. 
 
Q***************************************** 
Visit Embassy Rabat's Classified Website; 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/rabat 
***************************************** 
 
Riley