Dutch investigators arrested a father and daughter last week for “large-scale financing” of Hamas in breach of E.U. sanctions, prosecutors said Monday.
The man, 55, and his daughter, 25, from the town of Leidschendam near The Hague, were arrested on June 22, reported AFP.
“According to Dutch law, names of those arrested may not be released unless they are convicted and even then, only the first names are given out,” a Dutch source told JNS. “However, everyone knows who they are. It’s Amin Abu Rashid and his daughter Israa.”
Abu Rashid and his daughter are the only two who fit the few details that have been released so far. Abu Rashid turned 55 in October 2022. His daughter Israa turned 25 in May.
Both have expressed support for Hamas. Abu Rashid has been photographed embracing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and attending Hamas events. Israa posted to Facebook in 2014, “Thanks to Allah my Lord! The war on Gaza is finally over!!—Proud of Hamas❤️ ❤️”
Abu Rashid’s Facebook account lists him as living in The Hague. Leidschendam is near The Hague’s city center.
Reflecting the widely held view of those posting to social media on the topic, Raouf Alexander Leeraar, policy adviser at the Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI), the leading organization in the Netherlands combating antisemitism, tweeted on Tuesday, “It is probably Amin Abu Rashed, known as a fundraiser of #Hamas.”
Het gaat waarschijnlijk om Amin Abou Rashed, bekend als fondsenwerver van #Hamas. Hij staat overigens keurig op de foto met @DenkNL kamerlid @tunahankuzu en Stephan van Baarle. Ja zeker, Nederlandse kamerleden en een fondsenwerver voor #Hamas…. https://t.co/PCs5S0yZEL pic.twitter.com/xoa3tB7548
— Raouf Alexander Leeraar (@LeeraarRaffi) June 26, 2023
Dutch authorities said that in addition to sending approximately €5.5 million ($6 million) to Hamas, the suspects are also believed to have participated “in a criminal organization whose purpose is to support Hamas financially.”
Abu Rashid leads the Stichting Israa (“Israa Foundation”) located in Rotterdam. The Israa Foundation is part of a network known as the Union of Good. The U.S. Department of the Treasury labeled the Union of Good a terrorist group in 2008.
During searches of a house in Leidschendam and a business in Rotterdam, investigators found cash and seized a bank account with a balance of around €750,000 ($820,000).
The probe was launched following reports of unusual transactions and newspaper articles about a Hamas fundraising event in Europe, the prosecution service added.
This, too, implicates Abu Rashid, as it was reported last month that an annual anti-Israel conference titled “The 20th European Palestinians Conference: 75 Years On … We Will Return” was hosted in Malmo, Sweden by groups accused of links to Hamas. Amin Abu Rashid was the chairman of the conference.
Abu Rashid and his daughter remain in custody.
A Dutch source told JNS that even if found guilty, Abu Rashid and his daughter would be sentenced to only four years imprisonment and would be let go after serving two-thirds of that time.
Abu Rashid took part in the 2010 Gaza protest flotilla. According to a Ynet report at the time, he was “nicknamed ‘Amin Abu Ibrahim’ by Hamas members. Israeli intelligence considers him one of the leaders of the Palestinian movement’s fundraising system and the chief Hamas fundraiser in Western Europe.”
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, was placed on an E.U. terrorism blacklist after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. An E.U. court temporarily removed it from the list in 2014 but the bloc’s top court reinstated it in 2017.