Hamas: We ‘Salute and Support’ BDS

The boycott, divestment and sanctions effort (BDS) that seeks to delegitimize Israel received an endorsement from Hamas on July 5, 2017. Hamas, the U.S.-designated terror group that rules the Gaza Strip, tweeted: “We salute and support the influential BDS movement.”

Hamas’ declaration of support is hardly surprising.

Hamas seeks the destruction of the Jewish state and the genocide of its inhabitants. As CAMERA has noted, BDS itself has links to individuals and organizations tied to Hamas. Jonathan Schanzer, a former analyst of terror networks for the U.S. Treasury Department, noted these links in testimony delivered before the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on April 19, 2016.

One organization linked to Hamas is American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Schanzer noted that AMP is a “leading driver of the BDS campaign. AMP’s campus activities are extensive. AMP is arguably the most important sponsor and organizer for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which is the most visible arm of the BDS campaign on campuses in the United States. It provides speakers, training, printed materials, a so-called ‘Apartheid Wall,’ and grants to SJP activists.”

Schanzer stated that the organization spent $100,000 on college campuses in 2014 alone. The group has a campus coordinator on staff to work directly with SJP and “other pro-BDS campus groups across the country.”

AMP also has strong ties to Hamas-linked “charities,” including the now-defunct Holy Land Foundations (HLF).

According to the U.S. Treasury Department: “HLF support Hamas activities through direct fund transfers to its offices in the West Bank and Gaza that are affiliated with Hamas and transfers of funds to Islamic charity committees (‘zakat committees’) and other charitable organizations that are part of Hamas or controlled by Hamas members. Mousa Mohamed Abu Marzook, a political leader of Hamas, provided substantial funds to the Holy Land Foundation in the early 1990s. In 1994, Marzook (who was named a Specially Designated Terrorist by the Treasury Department in 1995) designated HLF as the primary fund-raising entity for Hamas in the United States. HLF funds were used by Hamas to support schools that served Hamas ends by encouraging children to become suicide bombers and to recruit suicide bombers by offering support to their families.”

BDS advocates often claim that the effort has its origins in organic “civil society groups.” Yet, as a CAMERA Op-Ed in The Hill pointed out, U.S. listed terrorist groups, including the al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade and non-Palestinian Syrian extremist organizations, played a role in founding and supporting the BDS movement (“More Distortions on Israel,” May 19, 2015).

The media should not ignore the close links between Hamas and BDS.