US Muslim Brotherhood Organizations Join Turkish-American Lobby Group To Host “National Palestine March” In Washington

On 29 May 2021, a coali­tion of promi­nent US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood orga­ni­za­tions and a Turk­ish-Amer­i­can lob­by group close­ly tied to the Turk­ish rul­ing par­ty co-host­ed a “Nation­al Pales­tine March” in Wash­ing­ton, DC. Accord­ing to a post on the web­site of the Islam­ic Coun­cil of North Amer­i­ca (ICNA):

[ICNA] today joined the U.S. Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions (USCMO), Amer­i­can Mus­lims for Pales­tine (AMP) and oth­er jus­tice orga­ni­za­tions and activists for the Nation­al March for Pales­tine in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., tak­ing place on Sat­ur­day, May 29, from 3:00 to 8:00, start­ing at the Lin­coln Memo­r­i­al and march­ing to Congress.

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Accord­ing to the post, the event, which drew thou­sands of pro­tes­tors, was part of a new nation­al ‘#Sanc­tion­Is­rael’ cam­paign by the Amer­i­can Mus­lims for Pales­tine (AMP), a Pales­tin­ian advo­ca­cy group with strong ties to both the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood and to the Hamas sup­port infra­struc­ture in the US. The cam­paign calls on the Biden admin­is­tra­tion and Con­gress to sanc­tion Israel, to stop mil­i­tary and logis­ti­cal aid to the coun­try, and to sup­port “Pales­tin­ian lib­er­a­tion” efforts. On 25 May 2021, an AMP-host­ed vir­tu­al gath­er­ing aimed at rais­ing aware­ness for the cause brought togeth­er promi­nent Amer­i­can pro-Pales­tin­ian activists, includ­ing Israel crit­ic Lin­da Sar­sour, who has fam­i­ly ties to Hamas, and Con­gress­woman Rashi­da Tlaib (D‑MI).

The Wash­ing­ton march was host­ed by AMP in part­ner­ship with sev­er­al oth­er orga­ni­za­tions tied to the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood (GMB) in the US, including:

• Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Relations

• Mus­lim Amer­i­can Society

• ICNA Coun­cil for Social Justice

• Mus­lim Ummah of North Amer­i­ca, a rel­a­tive­ly obscure mem­ber of the US Coun­cil of Mus­lim Orga­ni­za­tions(USCMO) and whose con­ven­tions have fea­tured impor­tant US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood leaders

Anoth­er march part­ner was the Turk­ish-Amer­i­can Nation­al Steer­ing Com­mit­tee, a Turk­ish-Amer­i­can influ­ence group close­ly tied to the Turk­ish rul­ing par­ty and co-chaired by Pres­i­dent Erdoğan’s cousin Halil Mut­lu that has repeat­ed­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in meet­ings with US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood leaders.

The event was endorsed by a large num­ber of pro­gres­sive Pales­tine advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions and human rights groups, including:

• Jew­ish Voice for Peace, whose board mem­ber Phyl­lis Ben­nis in May 2021 has par­tic­i­pat­ed in a pro-Pales­tine speak­ing event by British Mus­lim Broth­er­hood groups

• Sami­doun, a Pales­tin­ian pris­on­er advo­ca­cy NGO close­ly tied to the ter­ror orga­ni­za­tion Pop­u­lar Front for the Lib­er­a­tion of Palestine

• Code­Pink, a US women-led grass­roots orga­ni­za­tion and a main pro­po­nent of the Boy­cott, Divest­ment & Sanc­tions (BDS) move­ment against Israel

Pri­or report­ing by the Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) about the inter­na­tion­al Hamas sup­port infra­struc­ture has included:

• 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.

• A May 2021 report that UK Labour Mus­lim Net­work had host­ed a “Vir­tu­al Iftar” fea­tur­ing pro-Hamas activists and GMB leaders.

• A May 2021 report that a vir­tu­al GMB schol­ars con­fer­ence brought togeth­er a UN-sanc­tioned ter­ror­ism financier, GMB lead­ers, and a British orga­ni­za­tion known to be pro-Hamas.

• A May 2021 report that an Irish MP and a mem­ber of the Israeli Par­lia­ment were among the pan­elists of an online round­table on Pales­tine orga­nized by a coali­tion of UK Mus­lim Broth­er­hood groups.