A Turkey-based lobbying network with ties to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is working to recruit European politicians to support anti-Israel policies, according to a new investigative report.

NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institute that tracks anti-Israel bias among nongovernmental organizations, published a report last week on the expansion of the League of Parliamentarians for Al-Quds and Palestine (LP4Q).

This political lobby network, which was established in 2015 and includes about 1,500 parliamentarians from around the world, is growing its influence across several European countries.

Vincent Chebat, senior researcher at NGO Monitor, authored the report, which exposes the dysfunction in the ways interest groups operate within European parliaments. He noted that the information about LP4Q’s connections to Hamas and the involvement of highly controversial European representatives in a lobby group backed by Turkey and Qatar was easily accessible.

“The lack of basic vetting is remarkable,” he told The Algemeiner. “It is not surprising that far-left MPs, some belonging to parties that have repeatedly refused to recognize Hamas as a terrorist entity, were involved in establishing this network.”

Since 2023, LP4Q members have met with current and former members of parliaments across Europe and activists in the European Parliament, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Scotland, and Finland.

The organization is also “preparing to expand” its activities to Portugal, the Netherlands, and eastern Europe.

LP4Q describes itself as an organization established “at the initiative of parliamentarians who support Palestinian rights.”

Last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an outspoken supporter of Hamas and a fierce critic of Israel, said that “the League of Parliamentarians for al-Quds has become the voice of the Palestinian issue at the global level.”

Michele Piras, a former Italian member of parliament and current LP4Q board member, leads the group’s expansion in Europe and has reportedly engaged with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist organization that participated in Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to NGO Monitor.

Last year, LP4Q’s European Network held its first meeting at the French National Assembly, bringing together 20 parliamentarians from several European countries to discuss, as they described, “the pressing need for Europe to take decisive action to halt the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

“Participants advocated for measures such as the cessation of military cooperation with Israel, an arms embargo, an immediate ceasefire, and the provision of humanitarian aid to civilians,” LP4Q wrote in a statement.

“Additionally, support was voiced for pursuing legal avenues, including actions before the International Court of Justice, to ensure severe condemnation of Israeli crimes,” the statement continued.

During the meeting, members also argued for “the recognition of an independent Palestinian State … and the right to self-determination for the Palestinian people.”

NGO Monitor reported that 160 current and former European parliamentarians signed a petition outlining their positions on the French communist website L’Humanité as part of the European Network’s launch. The signatories included 99 French, 23 Italian, 12 Belgian, and 14 Spanish MPs, senators, and MEPs (member of European Parliament).

Until its expansion to Europe, LP4Q was originally composed of members of parliament from Muslim countries, with at least two of its board members linked to Hamas and having been sanctioned by the US government.

For example, LP4Q President Hamid bin Abdullah Al-Ahmar, a Yemeni businessman, is considered one of Hamas’s most prominent international supporters, according to the US Treasury Department. He also played a key role in Hamas’s investment portfolio, which managed over $500 million worth of assets at its peak.

In 2021, Al-Ahmar met now-deceased Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to discuss “the political developments related to the Palestinian issue, the dangers facing it, ways to confront them, and the required national, regional, and international work strategies, especially within the parliamentary framework represented by the Parliamentarians for Jerusalem Association.”

Other LP4Q members and officials also have ties to Hamas. For example, board member Sayed Salem Abu-Msameh has been described as “one of the founders of Hamas” and was reportedly sentenced by Israel to 12 years in prison for helping to establish the terrorist group’s military wing.

LP4Q board vice presidents Hasan Turan, a Turkish member of parliament, and Ahmed Kharchi, an Algerian member of parliament, have also been linked to Hamas, with Turan reportedly facilitating high-level meetings between senior Hamas leaders and Turkish political elites.

According to NGO Monitor, LP4Q already has influence in Muslim states, including Qatar, as well as in Africa and South America, through its observer membership in the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC), the African Parliamentary Union (APU), the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC), and the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union.

As for LP4Q’s finances, NGO Monitor explained that the Turkey-based lobbying network is not transparent about its sources of funding, and the amounts related to its agreements remain undisclosed.

In 2021, LP4Q signed a “protocol cooperation” with a Turkish governmental institution, the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities. That same year, it agreed with the state-run news agency Anadolu “to engage and coordinate in order to serve the Palestinian and the cause of Jerusalem in the media and to confront the disinformation and falsification campaigns of the Israeli media machine.”

The Algemeiner reached out to LP4Q for comment for this story but did not receive a response.

The post Hamas-Linked Lobbying Network Expands Political Influence in Europe, New Report Shows first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Israel announced on Tuesday its conclusion that one of the hostages slated for release in the current Gaza ceasefire deal died on Oct. 7, 2023, during the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, recent intelligence confirmed that Hamas murdered Shlomo Mansour, 86, and took his body from his home in Kibbutz Kissufim to Gaza.

In a statement, Mansour’s family called him “the pillar of strength for our entire family” and “a man of high morals and values, a lover of humanity, who always helped others wholeheartedly.” They described Mansour as “a man with a heart of gold, golden hands, and a smile worth gold.”

Born in Baghdad, Mansour survived the 1941 Farhud pogrom which targeted Jews in Iraq’s capital. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum says that “during the two days of violence, rioters murdered between 150 and 180 Jews, injured 600 others, and raped an undetermined number of women. They also looted some 1,500 stores and homes. The community leaders estimated that about 2,500 families — 15 percent of the Jewish community in Baghdad — suffered directly from the pogrom.”

Mansour, now the oldest hostage still in Gaza, immigrated to Israel at 13. He and his wife Mazel — who escaped during the Hamas attack — had five children and 12 grandchildren.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that “my wife Sarah and I extend our heartfelt condolences to the family of the late Shlomo Mansour, upon receiving the bitter news of his murder by the terrorist organization Hamas.”

Netanyahu called Mansour “one of the builders of the country and the founders of Kibbutz Kissufim. He survived the Farhud riots in Iraq in his youth. During the brutal terrorist attack by Hamas murderers on Oct. 7, he was murdered and kidnapped to Gaza. We share in the family’s deep grief. We will not rest or be silent until he is returned to the grave of Israel. We will continue to act resolutely and tirelessly until we return all of our hostages — both living and dead. May his memory be blessed.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a statement that he sends “all my support and strength to the Mansour family and the community of Kibbutz Kissufim, who have received the bitter and painful news of the murder of Shlomo Mansour, who was taken hostage on Oct. 7.”

Herzog stated that “about a month ago, I had the privilege of meeting his incredible family and hearing from them about their beloved Shlomo, who survived the Farhud pogrom against Baghdad’s Jews in 1941, only to be brutally abducted from his home in Kissufim at the age of 86. They fought with all their might for his return throughout a year and four months of hell and pain, clinging in hope and prayer for his fate.”

Describing Mansour as “a talented carpenter, a modest and kind-hearted family and community man who radiated warmth and love to all those around him,” Herzog said that “we will continue to do everything in our power to bring Shlomo home to be laid to rest in dignity, and to bring back all our hostages — both the living and the fallen — until the very last one.”

Mansour’s family advocated in their statement for “decision-makers to make a brave and ethical decision to bring all hostages home immediately — the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial in their homeland.”

The American Jewish Committee said in a statement responding to Mansour’s murder that “we weep with his family, his kibbutz, and all of Israel today. May his memory be a blessing.”

The European Jewish Congress stated that “we will continue doing everything in our power to bring Shlomo home for a dignified burial and to return all our hostages — both the living and the fallen — until the last one is brought back. May his memory be a blessing.”

The Anti-Defamation League responded that Mansour “endured unimaginable tragedies yet was deeply loved by his family and community. For over a year, his loved ones clung to the cruel hope he was alive. We mourn this heartbreaking loss and send our deepest condolences to his family. May his memory be a blessing.”

Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Forum, told Sky News Australia following confirmation of Mansour’s death that “there is no depths, no ends to the depravity, the cruelty and the monstrous evil of Hamas. They spare no one. From a Holocaust survivor, 86-year-old Shlomo Mansour whom they took hostage from his home, to the youngest of hostages, a 9-month-old baby, to women and the elderly — no one is spared by their evil. There is no end to that.”

Hamas announced on Monday its plan to suspend the planned releases of further hostages, accusing the Jewish state of violating the ceasefire agreement — charges which Israel denies.

The post IDF Confirms Death of Hostage Shlomo Mansour, Murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7 first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

After celebrities and major Jewish organizations blasted rapper Ye, formerly know as Kanye West, for selling on his Yeezy website shirts emblazoned with a swastika, the online store has shut down as of Tuesday morning.

Ye, 47, used a Super Bowl commercial to direct people to his website Yeezy.com, which since Sunday night was selling only one item — a short sleeve, white t-shirt that features in front a black swastika, a symbol of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party that is still used by far-right extremists today. There was no description for the shirt on the website except for the letters “HH-01,” which according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is code for “Heil Hitler.”

The shirts were being sold for $20 in three different sizes, but by Tuesday morning, the Yeezy.com website was down. “This store is unavailable,” said a message on the homepage. Shopify, which was helping to sell the product on the Yeezy website, has not publicly responded on its involvement with Ye. The president of Shopify, Harley Finkelstein, is the grandson of Holocaust survivors.

The ADL started a call to action, demanding that Fox Sports condemn Ye’s Super Bowl commercial. Meanwhile, StandWithUs, a pro-Israel nonprofit, is calling on the public to pressure Fox Productions to publicly apologize for airing Ye’s advertisement and to donate all proceeds from the ad to Yad Vashem, Israel’s national memorial to the Holocaust. Several other major Jewish organizations — including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Campaign Against Antisemitism — all denounced Ye’s decision to sell the swastika shirt as well as the rabidly antisemitic comments he posted on X early Friday morning.

American pop singer Charlie Puth, who is Jewish from his mother’s side while his father is of German descent, posted a message on his Instagram story on Monday addressed to Ye, when the swastika shirts were still being sold. “@Ye The message you are sending to the world is incredibly dangerous,” he told the rapper. “Please, man, I beg you to stop. You are selling a T-shirt featuring a Swastika, and MILLIONS of people are influenced by you. Please, I BEG you to stop, PLEASE [sic].”

“Since 1945, the swastika has served as the most significant and notorious of hate symbols,” according to the ADL website. In an Instagram video on Monday, former NFL player Emmanuel Acho criticized Ye for attempting to “desensitize” the mass genocide carried out by Nazis during the Holocaust.

“I once talked to a Holocaust survivor and she told me, ‘Emmanuel, the Holocaust was created by the most brilliant minds; the greatest minds of the time,’” said the former NFL linebacker, who is not Jewish. “And Kanye West has proven to be a musical genius, a musical mind. Do not for a moment become desensitized to what is occurring in our culture. There is no space for racism, sexism, antisemitism, misogyny. And I believe that what Kanye West is currently doing is desensitizing us to one of the greatest forms of hate this world has ever seen. I hope you’re not laughing, because it stopped being funny a long time ago.”

Ye’s Super Bowl commercial was not aired nationally but viewed in the Los Angeles area. He started selling the swastika shirts shortly after posting numerous antisemitic comments on X in which he targeted Jews, and declared “Im [sic] a Nazi,” Im [sic] a racist” and “I love Hitler.” His X account is no longer active as of Sunday.

Ye has a history of making antisemitic comments, including glorifying Hitler and the Nazis.

American singer, songwriter, and musician Matthew Koma, who is Jewish, shared in an Instagram post that he is selling a t-shirt that says on front “F—k Ye.” He originally noted that all profits from the shirt would be donated to Backline, a nonprofit that supports mental health care for music industry professionals and their families. Koma, who is married to actress and singer Hillary Duff, originally wrote in the caption of his Instagram post: “I made this shirt because f—k Ye and his antisemitism but also I don’t trust my fellow Jews with money and all Jewish organizations have a questionable history.”

He also told one Jewish social media user in the comments section that he chose to donate all proceeds to Backline and not a Jewish-related organization because he “had a hard time figuring out which [Jewish] charities were legit or didn’t have a questionable history.” His anti-Jewish comments garnered backlash from social media users who noted the similarly between his remarks and Ye’s antisemitic rant on Friday, in which the rapper said he does not trust Jews and claimed, “They always gonna steal.”

Koma responded by saying on Tuesday that all proceeds from the “F—k Ye” shirt will now be given to Blue Card, a nonprofit organization that provides financial assistance to Holocaust survivors in the US.

 

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The post Kanye West’s Website Shuts Down After Selling Swastika Shirts, Celebrities and Jewish Groups Slam Rapper first appeared on Algemeiner.com.