Jerusalem Support Conference Brings Together Pro-Hamas Activists, European Muslim Brotherhood Leaders

On 29 April 2021, a coali­tion of Euro­pean Pales­tine advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions host­ed a vir­tu­al Jerusalem sup­port con­fer­ence call­ing on west­ern deci­sion-mak­ers to take action against per­ceived injus­tices against the peo­ple of Jerusalem. Accord­ing to the conference’s final state­ment:

At the end of its events, Thurs­day 29–4‑2021, the Euro­pean Con­fer­ence of Sup­port for Jerusalem demand­ed the west­ern soci­ety, its insti­tu­tions, its bod­ies, gov­ern­ments and Euro­pean deci­sion mak­ers […] to move rapid­ly to lift the injus­tice against the peo­ple of Jerusalem […]. [Trans­lat­ed from Ara­bic using Google.]

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Amongst oth­er things, par­tic­i­pants in the live-streamed event dis­cussed ways to con­front the city’s alleged “Judaiza­tion” pol­i­cy and applaud­ed a recent Human Rights Watch report that accused the Israeli gov­ern­ment of apartheid and crimes against humanity.

The con­fer­ence was co-orga­nized by the Pales­tini­ans in Europe Con­fer­ence, a group spon­sored by the UK-based Pales­tin­ian Return Cen­tre, a Pales­tine advo­ca­cy group with ties to both Hamas and the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood. Anoth­er co-orga­niz­er was Euro­peans for Al-Quds (aka Euro­peans for Jerusalem Foun­da­tion) that has described itself as an umbrel­la orga­ni­za­tion for dozens of pro-Pales­tin­ian orga­ni­za­tions through­out the EU. Euro­peans for Al-Quds was iden­ti­fied by the Glob­al Mus­lim­Broth­er­hood Dai­ly Watch as also tied to Hamas. The con­fer­ence also brought togeth­er sev­er­al pro-Hamas activists and Euro­pean GMB lead­ers, including:

• Amin Abou Rashed, head of the Pales­tini­ans in Europe Con­fer­ence and for­mer leader of the now-defunct Al-Aqsa Foun­da­tion, the Dutch mem­ber of the Union of Good (UOG), a world­wide coali­tion of char­i­ties that in 2000 was des­ig­nat­ed by the Unit­ed States as a financ­ing enti­ty for Hamas.

• Mohammed Hanoun, Pres­i­dent of Euro­peans for Al-Quds and head of the Asso­ci­azione Benefi­ca di Sol­i­da­ri­età con il Popo­lo Palesti­nese, the Ital­ian UOG member.

• Samir Falah, Chair­man of the Coun­cil of Euro­pean Mus­lims and for­mer head of the Deutsche Mus­lim­is­che Gemein­schaft, rep­re­sent­ing the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood in Germany.

• Taha Soli­man Amer, lead­ing mem­ber of sev­er­al Ger­man Mus­lim Broth­er­hood orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing Germany’s Insti­tut Européen des Sci­ences Humaines off­shoot and the Coun­cil Of Imams And Schol­ars in Germany

In May 2021, the GIOR 2021 report­ed that the UK Labour Mus­lim Net­work, an orga­ni­za­tion that seeks to pro­mote British Mus­lim engage­ment with the Labour Par­ty, had host­ed a vir­tu­al Ramadan meet­ing that brought togeth­er par­ty lead­ers and promi­nent British pro-Hamas/GMB activists. Pri­or GIOR report­ing about the Euro­pean and inter­na­tion­al Hamas sup­port net­work has included:

• A Decem­ber 2020 report about a vir­tu­al Pales­tin­ian advo­ca­cy con­fer­ence that fea­tured Hamas sup­port groups and three US Congresswomen.

• A Jan­u­ary 2021 report that the Euro­pean Hamas sup­port net­work had estab­lished a new front group.

• An April 2021 report that a Dan­ish MP for the left-wing Red-Green Alliance had par­tic­i­pat­ed in a vir­tu­al con­fer­ence host­ed by the same Hamas sup­port group.