Hamas HQ Office in Saudi Arabia

By Matthew Levitt

Israeli authorities announced today the arrest of an Israeli-Arab Hamas activist who played central militant, political and financing roles for the group in coordination with a "Hamas command in Saudi Arabia."

Until he was arrested last month, Yakub Muhamad Yakub Abu Etzev was in contact with senior Hamas officials in Saudi Arabia via e-mail. According to Israeli authorities, "Abu Etzev confessed that he received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Hamas HQ in Saudi Arabia as well as instructions that he passed on to Hamas field operatives." These funds entered the West Bank through human couriers and money changers.

The Hamas office in Saudi Arabia reportedly instructed Abu Etzev to open a "communications office" to report on developments on the ground to Hamas operatives abroad. The Hamas leaders in Saudi Arabia provided the funding for this venture, as well as funding for the families of suicide terrorists and imprisoned terrorists and a variety of Hamas institutions. Monies were often transfered under the cover of charity work.

Abu Etzev informed that Hamas' decision to participate in Palestinian elections came only after the group canvassed field operatives. This input was then forwarded to Hamas operatives in Saudi Arabia. Abu Etzev himself was personally involved in the logistical preparations leading up to elections, and funded the creation of local Hamas committees in towns and villages with funds from Hamas' Saudi office.

The revelation that Hamas operates a command center in Saudi Arabia with close ties to Hamas militants executing attacks as well as the movement's political and social-welfare (dawa) operations is remarkable. But neither the fact that Hamas operatives are active in the kingdom nor the fact that Hamas receives significant amounts of funding from within the kingdom is news.

As early as 1994, Palestinian sources noted that "the widespread belief is that Hamas has received money [from] the governments of Saudi Arabia and some Gulf states," adding that such support is believed to have continued after the Persian Gulf War "as a way of punishing the PLO for its support of Iraq during the Gulf crisis." In 1997, Italian press reports cited unnamed Palestinian officials who complained, "Riyadh's help to Hamas has grown with the opening of new [financial] channels," and revealed that "over 140 billion lire has been collected in Saudi Arabia and the other oil monarchies." In September 2003, U.S. officials noted in congressional testimony that despite some success in curbing terror financing, "by no means have we cross[ed] the bridge of the issue of terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia." In testimony on efforts to target Hamas financing, a senior Treasury official noted that not only is it "not a crime to give to Hamas in Saudi Arabia," but also that "Hamas during the Hajj alone raises enormous amounts of money and send their political director there."

Individuals, charities and banks tied to the ruling class in Saudi Arabia are among the most prolific supporters of Islamist extremism, both Palestinian and global. The al-Raji family has been tied to Hamas funding, as have other members of the Saudi elite, such as Khari al Agha and Abd Al Rahim Nasrallah, who is believed to have laundered and transferred funds through charitable organizations fronting for Hamas in Europe. Nasrallah was reportedly in direct contact with Zayd Mahmoud Abd al-Rahim Salameh Zakarneh, the head of the Jenin charity committee--a central node in the Hamas dawa in the northern West Bank. Together, Zakarna and Nasrallah may have arranged for the transfer of hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hamas. Individual contributions from Saudi Arabia were instrumental in Hamas' development of the Qassam rockets it routinely shoots into Israel from Gaza. In December 2001, Israeli authorities arrested Hamas operative Osama Zohadi Hamed Karika as he attempted to cross the Rafah border crossing at Gaza. On his person were documents detailing the development of the Qassam rockets. Under questioning, he admitted that he was on his way to Saudi Arabia to brief unidentified persons on the development of the rockets and to obtain their continued funding for the project. Karika also told his Israeli interrogators that it was in Saudi Arabia where he had personally secured initial funding for the rocket program.

Much of the above research is drawn from sections of my forthcoming book, "Exposing Hamas: Funding Terror Under the Cover of Charity" (Yale University Press, 2006).

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