A man accused of being “a Hamas operative” based in London is a key figure behind Greta Thunberg’s Gaza aid boat, it has emerged. The Telegraph has the story.
Zaher Birawi, who was described in Parliament as a person with links to Hamas, called himself a “founding member” of the Freedom Flotilla International Coalition, which arranged the voyage by the aid boat Madleen.
Israeli forces boarded and seized the boat on Sunday, detaining the 12 pro-Palestinian activists it was carrying, including Ms Thunberg, as it attempted to bring a “symbolic” amount of aid to Gaza in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade.
Mr Birawi, a Palestinian-British journalist at an Arabic-language satellite TV channel in London, was at the launch of the Madleen a week ago, livestreaming it from its dock in Sicily. Ms Thunberg gave a speech before the boat set sail for Gaza.
In 2013, Mr Birawi was named by Israel as a Hamas operative in Europe, and is the head of the Europal Forum, which Israel designated as a terrorist organisation in 2021.
The Europal Forum has strongly denied any terror links, and in 2021 Mr Birwani received compensation after taking legal action against a financial database he said had wrongly placed him on a terrorism watch list.
He denied ever being involved in any illegal acts within the scope of terrorism crimes.
Speaking in the Commons in October 2023, Christian Wakeford, the Labour MP for Bury South, used Parliamentary privilege to name 63 year-old Mr Birawi as a Hamas operative living in Barnet, north London.
“He is listed as a trustee of a UK-registered charity, Education Aid for Palestinians, and publicly available video shows him hosting a 2019 event in London titled Understanding Hamas,” Mr Wakeford told MPs.
“Two weeks ago, Hamas launched the deadliest terror attack [the October 7th attack on Israel] the world has seen since 9/11. It is therefore a serious national security risk for Hamas operatives to be living here in London, especially where at least one appears to have done so through the use of fake documents in obtaining British citizenship.”
There is no suggestion that Mr Birwani was involved in the October 7th attack.
Hamas has been proscribed as a terror group in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000 since 2021.
Worth reading in full.
Meanwhile it’s reported that Greta and chums – whose boat was sprayed with a white irritant ahead of being seized – will be forced to watch a video of Hamas’s October 7th atrocities – and Sweden has refused to get involved. From the Mail:
Sweden has rejected Greta Thunberg’s plea for help on board the ‘freedom flotilla’ after Israeli commandos intercepted the vessel on its approach to Gaza.
Maria Malmer Stenergard, the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, said on Monday that she believes Thunberg is not in need of support from the Ministry after the climate activist called on followers to pressure the Government into action.
“A great responsibility rests on those who choose to travel contrary to the advice given to a place,” she said, as protesters gathered in Stockholm to demand an intervention. …
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which organised the voyage from Italy to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, said last night that the ship had come “under assault” in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Madleen was said to have been shadowed by speedboats and drones before ‘quadcopters’ surrounded and sprayed the ship with an unidentified “white irritant substance”, shortly before the IDF seized it.
Images showed the deck splattered with white liquid. Activist Yasmin Acar, among those on board, said it had been deployed by Israel and was affecting her eyes.
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