A prominent Europe-based Palestinian activist has criticized the United States for imposing sanctions against him, dismissing the move as an attempt to discourage him “from continuing my work for Palestine and defending the rights of my people.”
Majed al-Zeer, who has dual British and Jordanian nationality, also rejected the accusations cited in the sanctions as “absolutely false.”
“It’s crazy,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune on Thursday. “It affects my social life, my career, for the sake of accusation. There is no proof.
Al-Zeer explained that he learned of the sanctions earlier this week through the media. On Monday, the US Treasury Department identified al-Zeer as one of three individuals sanctioned for his alleged ties to the Palestinian group Hamas, which it called a “terrorist” organization.
The Treasury accused al-Zeer, who lives in the UK and Germany, of being a “senior Hamas representative” who played “a central role in the terrorist group’s European fundraising”.
But al-Zeer, the chairman of the Euro-Palestinian Council for Political Relations, refuted the accusation in a press release Thursday.
Speaking to Tel Aviv Tribune afterwards, he explained that he had never engaged in any financial activity during his years of activism in Europe, including when he was president of the Center for Palestinian Return, a UK-based advocacy group.
“Israel simply does not want any activist working for the good of Palestine. That’s the whole story,” he said.
A reflection of US-Israeli relations?
For al-Zeer, the US decision is a reflection of its “broader alignment” with Israel.
The United States has been a staunch ally of Israel since the country’s founding in 1948. This support has continued despite Israel’s current war in Gaza, which has raised concerns about civilian casualties and human rights abuses. the man.
“I am deeply perplexed by the approach taken to reach and announce this decision by a country that supposedly prides itself on its legal integrity,” al-Zeer said in his press release.
The sanctions were announced on October 7, the anniversary of the Hamas attack on southern Israel, which killed around 1,139 people.
Meanwhile, Israel’s response in Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians over the past year.
“As we mark one year since Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack, (the) Treasury will relentlessly continue to degrade the ability of Hamas and other destabilizing Iranian proxies to fund their operations and carry out additional acts of violence,” Treasury Secretary Janet L Yellen said in a statement. .
Al-Zeer was sanctioned along with three other individuals and nine companies that, according to the US Treasury, “play a critical role in raising external funds for Hamas, often under the guise of charity.”
The other two named are based in Italy and Austria, where they are involved with Palestinian defense groups. The Treasury Department also named a former Yemeni politician living in Türkiye and his businesses.
“Laughable” evidence
The sanctions effectively freeze the four men’s assets in the United States and prevent Americans from doing business with them.
“The Treasury Department will use every tool at our disposal to hold Hamas and its allies accountable, including those who seek to exploit the situation for additional sources of revenue,” Yellen said.
The United States has announced several rounds of sanctions targeting financial support to Hamas. It also sanctioned a handful of Israeli settlers and groups supporting illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Monday’s sanctions were not the first time al-Zeer was accused of being a member of Hamas. In 2019, he won a lawsuit after World-Check, an influential customer screening database used by banks, classified him as linked to “terrorism.”
Al-Zeer said the U.S. sanctions cited a photograph showing him with the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, whom Israel assassinated in Iran earlier this year.
But he argued the photo was taken as part of a larger delegation including several EU representatives, including British Labor leader Sir Gerald Kaufman. “It’s almost laughable,” he said of the evidence.
He vowed to fight these accusations. “I have already initiated, with the support of a legal team, the necessary legal procedures to contest these unfounded allegations and defend my rights.”