Israeli Defense Minister Ya'alon outlaws NGO representing Hamas in Europe.

Israeli Defense Minister Ya'alon outlaws NGO representing Hamas in Europe.HT: TGMBR.

Israeli media reported last month that the Israeli Defense Minister has outlawed the Council for European Palestinian Relations (CEPR) calling it Hamas’ leading organization in Europe. According to the Haaretz report:

December 13, 2013 Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has outlawed the Council for European Palestinian Relations (CEPR) – a Belgian non-profit organization that serves as Hamas’ representative in Europe. Members of the organization include four European MPs, who are now in danger of arrest if they land at Ben Gurion International Airport.

The director of the NGO is Dr. Arafat Shoukri, a resident of London who has been active for many years in various organizations working against the State of Israel, and was one of the leaders of the campaign calling for the lifting of the siege against Gaza.

The organization is registered in Belgium and acts as a lobby for the Gaza government in the European Union. It is also registered in the EU offices in the framework of the convention to increase transparency. On its website the organization claims that it ‘is working to improve the dialogue between Europe and the Arab world, with the objective of restoring Palestinian rights in accordance with international law, as part a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.’

In the past three years the CEPR has organized six delegations of European MPs, who visited Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. In 2010 Shoukri met with the then-chairman of the EU Parliament.

Two weeks ago Ya’alon declared the group ‘an outlawed organization,’ based on the emergency defense regulations. That means that Israel can confiscate money related to the organization and try its members or those who provide them with services. In the past Israel has declared isolated European groups illegal, but still this is an unusual declaration.

Also outlawed was a Norwegian NGO called European Empowerment Services and the European Campaign to Remove the Siege Against the Gaza Strip, which as far as we know is a media name only, without any real organization behind it.

Read the rest here. 

The GMBDW and its predecessor publication appear to have the only publications to have been reporting on the CEPR beginning in March 2012 when we identified its close ties to Hamas and the Global Muslim Brotherhood. The GMBDW also notes that the Haaretz characterization of the European Campaign to Remove the Siege Against the Gaza Strip (ECESG) as a “media name only” is a serious error. Israeli analyst Ehud Rosen has reported extensively on the ECESG in addition to the GMBDW posts on the subject.

Several of the CEPR trustees are also part of the Global Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas. Anouar Gharbi (aka Anwar al-Gharbi) now serving as Foreign Affairs Adviser of the President of Tunisia,  was also a founding member of the ECESG, identified above as close to both the PRC and to the the Global Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and Mr. Gharbi was one of the coordinators for the 2nd Gaza Flotilla. Mr Gharbi has also been an officer of the Association de Secours Palestinien (ASP) in Switzerland, the Swiss member of the Union of Good (UOG), a coalition of charities headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi which helps to raise funds for Hamas.Read the full story here.