Joby Warrick and Souad Mekhennet
Washington Post, Jan. 12, 2024
“While the key fundraisers have been active in some cases for decades, their tactics have been perfected in recent years as the groups learned to combine the vast reach of platforms such Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter, with the emotional power of an international tragedy.”
Three days after the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, one of Hamas’s top political leaders put out a call for a new front in the group’s conflict with Israel — a fight to be waged not with bullets, but with dollars.
“This is financial jihad,” Khaled Mashal, the group’s former political chief, declared in a speech disseminated over social media. He urged supporters worldwide to give “aid, money and all that you have,” adding, “don’t let your brothers down.”
Within days, a torrent of cash began pouring into accounts set up to help Gazans, much of it from people moved by images of victims of Israeli airstrikes and genuinely wanting to help. But also answering the call were groups with years of experience in delivering precisely the kind of jihad Hamas’s leader envisioned.
Across the Middle East and Europe, the Gaza conflict re-energized old fundraising networks with ties to militant Islamist groups and causes, including groups accused of raising money in the past for al-Qaeda and the Taliban as well as Hamas’s military wing, current and former U.S. counterterrorism officials say.
The groups helped raise millions of dollars practically overnight, using crowdfunding campaigns on social media that were built around photos and videos depicting the suffering of Gazan civilians. Some of the money was ultimately deposited in Hamas-controlled accounts using a range of methods, including cryptocurrency and informal cash-transfer networks used in Middle Eastern countries for centuries, the officials said.
Among those backing Hamas crowdfunding campaigns, officials said, are groups such as Kuwait’s Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, which has been accused by both the United Nations and U.S. government of raising money for al-Qaeda; as well as Europe-based charities with ties to the Union of Good, an umbrella organization that U.S. officials say was created by Hamas leaders and supporters to facilitate the transfer of money to the group. Both groups have denied supporting or advocating terrorism. Hamas’s founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel, and the group is regarded as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
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