IPT Report Documents Viva Palestina's Hamas Support

In the U.S. and England, organizers are laying the groundwork for a convoy of relief aid destined for Gaza. It would be the third such venture by a group calling itself Viva Palestina.

Its two previous trips saw the group deliver medical supplies, ambulances and other goods.

They also included meetings with senior Hamas officials. In March, Viva Palestina's leader, British MP George Galloway, defiantly handed a bag of cash directly to a Hamas minister (click here to see the video from the Middle East Media Research Institute):

"I, personally, am about to break the sanctions on the elected government of Palestine. By Allah, we carried a lot of cash here. You thought we were all fat. We are not fat. This is money that we have around our waists ... We are giving you now 100 vehicles and all of the contents. And we make no apology for what I am about to say: We are giving them to the elected government of Palestine; to the Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh."

Galloway was a little more circumspect on the second trip to Gaza in July. There was no public ceremony showing the donations. A group of Viva Palestina convoy participants did meet with Haniyeh, however, who praised them "as heroes; you are opening the eyes of the world to the siege in the Strip."

The Investigative Project on Terrorism has found ample evidence that Viva Palestina's ultimate objective is political – with the elevation of Hamas at its core. How can we be so sure?

Viva Palestina officials repeatedly said so. During that March event with Hamas officials, Galloway held up the bag of cash and said:

"This is not charity. This is politics. The government of Palestine is the best people to decide where this money is needed. We are giving this money now to the government of Palestine. And, if I could, I would give them 10 times, 100 times more."

That sentiment was echoed on the eve of the sendoff of the Viva Palestina USA convoy which left in July. During a rally in Brooklyn, speaker Lamis Deek told the crowd:

"It's not about charity... but in every way that we cut it, it is political."

She added:

"[I]n choosing Hamas, what they chose was one united Palestinian state on all of the 1948 territories from the north to the very south.

That is what Palestinians chose. And in supporting Palestinian choice we are saying we support their right to liberation from violent colonialism." Read more here ...

Source: IPT