As Gazans suffer poverty and war, Khaled Mashal and Ismail Haniyeh build their wealth.
1.8 million people live in the Gaza
Strip, most of them refugees. They endure an unemployment rate that
reaches 40%, shameful poverty, rock bottom wages, and, to top it all, an
apparently corrupt regime, with an extreme political ideology, that
finds it convenient to perpetuate poverty.
In the Arab press, particularly in Egypt, there are
countless stories about the corruption in Hamas. The Egyptians are no
fans of Hamas, and their own regime is corrupt enough, but we present
here a few excerpts from the welter of stories about Hamas's financial
criminality.
According to Palestinian news agency WAFA, the Hamas
movement is in the throes of an economic crisis in its political,
military and social institutions, after a number of corruption affairs
within it were exposed. Public anger has forced the movement to bring
many activists accused of corruption to justice, to avoid a revolution
in the Gaza Strip. Some of the cases involved bribery in the justice
system itself.
According to one report, the Hamas political bureau
held several meetings to discuss the many corruption affairs connected
to the financing of the movement's institutions in the Gaza Strip, the
financing of the
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and especially payments of activists'
wages. Moreover, the movement's financial statements show that bad
investments were made in real estate in Saudi Arabia, in Syria, and in
Dubai, leading to the loss of tens of millions of dollars that had been
earmarked for rehabilitating the Gaza Strip.
Sources cited in
these reports said the money was raised in Europe and the Gulf states
through the "Charity Coalition" and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards,
which transferred money to Hamas in exchange for attacks on Israeli
targets.
The most prominent corruption affair was the one
involving Ayman Taha, a senior figure in Hamas. Hamas has confirmed that
Taha was disloyal and that he had abused his authority to make money.
He is still under investigation, a matter which is under a veil of
secrecy, and there have been reports that he has been severely tortured.
It emerges from the reports that Taha allowed people close to him
to engage in illegal trading at the expense of hundreds of citizens who
paid money for projects, mostly in connection with smuggling tunnels.
Other
people who have been involved in corruption affairs connected to
taxation of goods passing through the tunnels are Hamas government
spokesman Taher al-Nunu, and senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Zahar.
Al-Zahar confirmed in a recent interview that he took part in illegal
trading via the tunnels, which are also used to smuggle weapons, and
that his wealth amounted to some six billion Egyptian pounds (hundreds
of millions of dollars).
Another corruption affair was that of a
senior Hamas figure who was exiled to Qatar in the prisoner release deal
for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Zaher Jabarin. Jabarin
is responsible for the payment of wages to families of Hamas prisoners
and former prisoners.
But the cherry on the cake is the conduct
attributed to Hamas's foremost leaders: Khaled
Mashal, head of the organization's political bureau, and Ismail
Haniyeh, head of the organization in Gaza. It was reported recently that
Mashal smuggled $12 million from Syria to Turkey under cover of the
civil war in Syria. Mashal reportedly appointed someone by the name of
Jibril Janid to transfer the money to Turkey in October 2012 from
Mashal's borther-in-law. It was also reported that the money belonged to
Hamas, but Mashal said it had "disappeared" in the civil war.
Furthermore,
a Qatari real estate company has unveiled a seven-acre project in Qatar
that includes four towers and a 2.5 acre commercial center owned by
Mashal, his wife and son. According to the company's engineer, the
towers will be among the most prominent in Doha, with 250 luxury
apartments, a private club, a kindergarten, a library, and tourist
attractions.
As for Ismail Haniyeh, he reportedly owns 2,500
square meters of land in Amar Almatar street in the Al-Ramal area
of the Gaza Strip. The land is estimated to be worth about $4 million,
and is registered in the name of his son-in-law. And while the talk is
of the failure to pay wages in the Gaza Strip, Haniyeh has bought
several houses in the names of his sons. According to press reports,
Haniyeh's wealth has risen in line with his popularity, thanks to his
involvement in the tunnels trade. It is also reported that Haniyeh's
son, who is also active in Hamas, was caught at the Rafah crossing with
millions of dollars in his possession. It turns out that the tunnels are
not just a pipeline for weapons, but also for the proceeds of
corruption.
There's a great deal of money, then, and so it's no
surprise that corruption is correspondingly great. One newspaper
published a Qatari document concerning a check for $250 million sent to
the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip in return for support for the
regime of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi. The beneficiary
of the check is Khaled Mashal.
It's no wonder therefore that an
Egyptian television presenter mocked Mashal the other day. "Khaled
Mashal sits and eats in restaurants in Qatar. He runs his jihad from
Qatar. My dear sir, Khaled Mashal, the jihad is in Gaza. Mr. Khaled and
all his brave warriors in Gaza people don’t have enough to eat,
children are suffering and buildings are destroyed with their
inhabitants. And all this time he resides in the most luxurious hotel in
the most beautiful district, in a room that overlooks the office that
the Israelis opened there." (The screen shows pictures of Mashal eating
and in a fitness room).
"Where is the courage? Where is the
heroism? If you have real spirit in you, go back tomorrow. Get on the
first plane and come back to Egypt. Don't worry, we'll open the Rafah
crossing for you, and make sure you get to the other side safely, and
reach your family whole and healthy. Our brothers the Palestinians
will greet you and you will meet your brother there, what's his name?
Ismail Haniyeh… sit in one of the hiding places underground and manage
operations. At least you'll stand at the head of your people. Every
shepherd leads his flock, and you, sir, are responsible for your people.
A leader doesn't run away. A leader is not afraid. A leader does not
run things by telephone…
"Khaled Mashal, before the revolution in
Syria against President Assad, bought a house there for $4 million. A
house for $4 million! When his people in Gaza have nothing to eat.
That's what the great jihad warriors do, Sheikh Haniyeh and Sheikh
Mashal…"
There are orientalists who think that Hamas's corrupt
behavior will in the end provoke social protest in the Gaza Strip. If
only one could believe it.
Thanks Richard G.
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