Italian Pro-Palestinian Advocacy Group Holds Meetings with Italian MPs; Group Leader Associated with Hamas Fundraising

On 2 June 2022, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Pales­tin­ian advo­ca­cy group Asso­ci­azione dei Palesti­ne­si in Italia (API) held meet­ings with sev­er­al mem­bers of the Ital­ian Par­lia­ment to dis­cuss mat­ters relat­ed to the Arab-Israeli con­flict. Accord­ing to an API Face­book post:

The lat­est devel­op­ments on the Pales­tin­ian scene and the reper­cus­sions of the block­ade on the Gaza Strip were talked about as vio­la­tions con­tin­ue in Jerusalem and the West Bank. There was also talk of a relief cam­paign for Pales­tin­ian refugee camps in Lebanon to cope with the human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis they are going through. [Trans­lat­ed from Ara­bic orig­i­nal using Bing]

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The API said it had met with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of sev­er­al Ital­ian fac­tions, includ­ing the Five Star Move­ment, the Left Par­ty, and Man­i­fes­tA, a new left-wing par­lia­men­tary group against war and neoliberalism.

The API del­e­ga­tion was led by promi­nent Ital­ian pro-Pales­tin­ian activist Mohamed Han­noun, who also serves as Pres­i­dent of the Asso­ci­azione Benefi­ca Di Sol­i­da­ri­eta’ Con Il Popo­lo Palesti­nese (ABSPP), an Ital­ian char­i­ty send­ing funds to the Pales­tin­ian Ter­ri­to­ries. The ABSPP was the Ital­ian mem­ber of the Union of Good (UOG), a world­wide coali­tion of Mus­lim char­i­ties des­ig­nat­ed by the US for Hamas fundrais­ing activ­i­ties and close­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB) and sanc­tioned by the US. In Jan­u­ary 2022, the GIOR report­ed that the Ital­ian Uni­Cred­it bank had closed the accounts of the ASBPP after mak­ing a series of sus­pi­cious mon­ey trans­fers to ben­e­fi­cia­ries in the Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­to­ries and being report­ed to the Ital­ian Finan­cial Intel­li­gence Unit for fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion. Han­noun also rep­re­sent­ed the Euro­pean Cam­paign to End the Siege On Gaza (ECESG), an umbrel­la of non-gov­ern­men­tal pro-Pales­tin­ian orga­ni­za­tions across Europe that coor­di­nat­ed var­i­ous Gaza flotil­las, includ­ing a June 2010 flotil­la involved in a vio­lent alter­ca­tion with Israel naval forces.

In Octo­ber 2021, the GIOR report­ed that Han­noun, rep­re­sent­ing the API, had met with sev­er­al Ital­ian Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment in Rome to dis­cuss mat­ters relat­ed to Israel and the human­i­tar­i­an sit­u­a­tion in the Mid­dle East. After that meet­ing, for­mer Five Star Move­ment MP Yana Chiara Ehm pub­lished a Face­book post say­ing she thanked Han­noun for the fruit­ful debate, not­ing that it end­ed with a clear call to “orga­nize a human­i­tar­i­an mis­sion in Lebanon.”