Elhanan Groner of HaKol HaYehudi on Wednesday published the first of three exposé articles revealing how Hamas is taking over open areas in Judea and Samaria and along the border seamline, thus reducing the security area of Jewish settlements.
In recent years, public awareness has been growing about the Palestinian Authority’s leading a huge takeover of large areas, particularly Area C, of state lands and strategic regions of Judea and Samaria, as part of setting facts on the ground and establishing a de facto “Palestinian state”.
An expression of the importance that the PA relates to this endeavor comes forth in the words of Mohammad Shtayyeh who served as Prime Minister of the PA from 2019 to 2024.
A-Shatia said “The Ministry of Agriculture is in the Palestinian National Security Center, honestly. Because what is our battle with the Jews about? After all, our campaign is not about bread. This ministry is the first line of defense for the land.”
THE HAMAS TREES PROJECT
A comprehensive investigation by HaKol HaYehudi reveals for the first time that the terrorist organization Hamas is also taking a significant part in this agricultural takeover by financing terrorist organizations from the Charity Coalition of the Muslim Brotherhood, doing this for years under the nose of the Israeli authorities.
This activity is manifested in the financing of hundreds of thousands of olive trees that are distributed to Arabs in Judea and Samaria and even in the Gaza Strip, using criteria that facilitate planting them near the fences of Jewish settlements, thus reducing their security spaces.
The project has been in operation for more than 15 years and has been intensifying in recent years. Similar to the actions that led to the reduction of the security area at the Gaza border through petitions to the High Court and various actions, this situation may also lead to increased risk through a terrorist infiltration scenario. Already today, the olive trees offer shelter for terrorists who shoot at Jews along the seamline.
ENGLAND – TEMPLE MOUNT – JUDEA AND SAMARIA
The money stream that has been financing the tree planting with tens of millions of dollars over the years passes from British terrorist organizations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, straight to the organization Zakat Al Quds – a branch of Hamas that operates on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and from there to the nurseries and later to the distribution of the trees in Judea and Samaria.
The “charity coalition” of the Muslim Brotherhood was established with the involvement of the Hamas leadership at the beginning of the second intifada in October 2000, as an umbrella organization that brings together a combination of dedicated Hamas and other extreme Islamist funds around the world.
The coalition includes more than 50 Islamist foundations and over the years has transferred hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas in Gaza and Judea and Samaria. Externally, the donations finance the civil society: schools, welfare, orphans, and agriculture. But during the second intifada, Israel realized and even proved it in documents seized during Operation Protective Shield, that the funds transferred to Hamas’s civil infrastructure help it maintain a system that supports terrorism, including suicide terrorism. As a result, Israel outlawed the coalition and about 50 organizations operating within it. They were declared terrorist organizations. But even today in the Gaza Strip, a significant part of the aid to Hamas goes through these organizations.
Back to the olive trees project: two of these organizations are UK groups, named Muslim Hands, and Human Appeal International. They have been operating for about 20 years, donating the trees. For example, according to Muslim Hands, in 2021 the organization donated 67,000 olive trees for £550,000 ($643,180) to “farmers in Palestine”.
The organization publishes a call for Muslims to donate an olive tree in Palestine for £15 and one of the interesting things that the investigation revealed is the way the project was marketed. The organization’s publications in English explain that the donation of the olive trees is intended to help with none other than the “climate crisis.” In the Arabic version in England, it is stated that this is an aid to “poor farmers in Palestine.” In the organization’s Arabic publications in Judea and Samaria it is presented as a nationalist struggle to hold onto the land.
Human Appeal is endeavoring to donate 800,000 olive trees over the next few years.
If the olive trees knew the hands planted them, their olives would become tears. Mahmoud Darwish pic.twitter.com/L7XfoQierc
— Ali (@AliStamboulli) November 4, 2023
HAMAS JERUSALEM
The organization that actually leads the project is Lajanat Zakat al-Quds al-Marqasriya (the Central Charity Committee of Jerusalem). This is the Da’wah organization operating under the Jordanian Waqf, but in practice, it is a subsidiary of Hamas Jerusalem. The organization’s offices are located on the Temple Mount and in the Old City. About two years ago, a harsh indictment was filed against the association, accusing it of being a Hamas affiliate that operated for about 30 years to accomplish Hamas’s goals in Jerusalem using tens of millions of shekels.
According to the indictment, the CEO of the association, Khaled Sabah, simultaneously served as the financial manager of Hamas in Jerusalem and was later appointed to the position of head of Hamas in Jerusalem. Following the indictment, the court ordered the dissolution of the association, but its offices still operate on the Temple Mount.
After receiving the funding from the British organizations, the people who take care of the distribution operation Lagnat Zakat Al Quds officials.
Toward the end of 2022, the Islamist organizations issued publications about the additional distribution of olive trees in at least 15 villages throughout Judea and Samaria. Among the villages were Dahria, Samua, and Bnei Naim in Mount Hebron, Asira al-Shamlia, Kira, Atil, Balaa, Madma, Zita, Jios, Ezon Atma, Sarta, Saniria, Beit Amin, Dia al-Eosun, Brokin, Aj And Arana, Jalma, Anza and Yamon in Samaria. Silvad and Atara in Binyamin and the village of Surif in Gush Etzion.
Special attention is given to the distribution to villages along the separation fence in Gilboa near Jenin and the Sharon area near Tulkarm.
TRUCKS AND TREES CONFISCATED, DISTRIBUTION OPERATION STOPPED
Because those who finance the purchasing and distribution of the olive trees are illegal associations from the charity coalition, Israeli law views the olive trees as “terrorist property.”
A legal opinion of the Lavi organization stated that this allows the security forces to confiscate the trees, uproot them even if they were planted on a private plot, and arrest those involved in the project on suspicion of terrorist property offenses, in addition to legal action against the trucks transporting the trees and the nurseries, which turn over millions in terrorist funds.
We should stress that this activity can be carried out regardless of whether the planting is done in areas A, B, or C, since it is paid for with terrorist funds that can be confiscated and their owners can be subject to prosecution anywhere in Judea and Samaria.
Indeed, following information passed on by HaKol HaYehudi to the authorities about the partition project and documents proving the funds came from declared terrorist organizations, a rare operation was carried out in December 2022 by the police, the army, and the civil administration, with patrols from the Samaria Regional Council’s department of lands, in which two trucks and approximately 2,000 olive trees were confiscated on their way to the villages of Orif and Zita Jema’in, having been donated by illegal associations.
