HLF Trial Update: Hamas Deputy Chief Settled U.S. Funding Dispute

By The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)

DALLAS - A turf war between competing U.S.-based Palestinian charities in 1994 was settled by Mousa Abu Marzook, a Hamas leader who serves as its deputy political director.

In testimony Tuesday, jurors in the Hamas-support trial of five former officials at the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) heard FBI recordings showing Marzook sided with the foundation over a Mississippi-based educational fund. HLF, prosecutors say, then became the designated fundraising arm for Hamas in the United States.

The first attempt to settle the dispute between the Texas-based HLF and the Al Aqsa Education Fund first was handled by the Palestine Committee, a group created by the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. to help Hamas. It included HLF, the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) and a think tank called the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR). Marzook had personal and financial ties with all three entities.

But Abdelhaleem Ashqar felt that HLF wasn't sending enough money to help the cause and arranged for Sheik Jamil Hamami, then a Hamas leader, to come to the U.S. in 1993 for fundraisers. HLF balked. Ashqar had an organization called the Al Aqsa Education Fund that was organizing Hamami's visit.

Defendant Shukri Abu Baker, HLF's former executive director, argued that letting Ashqar go unchecked in fundraising would set a precedent that could cripple HLF:

"Everyone who has an organization was calling us and, ‘We want to come to your end. We want you to do a program for us. I want to raise money for our organization'. Thus, the Foundation would turn into an agency and a mere station through which people come here, raise money and go back home."

Hamas official Mohammed Siam told Ashqar that the Palestine Committee discussed the issue in a February 1994 meeting:

"Sheik Jamil's program will continue as planned previously by A1 Aqsa Fund, but under the supervision of the Holy Land Fund, HLF, whereby collected donations will be forwarded to the HLF, Spending these funds will be decided between the HLF and Sheik Jamil."

Ashqar resisted, drawing a visit from Siam and Hamami. FBI agents learned of the meeting and recorded it. The men brought a letter from Marzook with instructions for Ashqar to back off:

"My honorable brother, I hope that you suspend your activity until I arrive in America and work on solving the disagreement. Sheik Jamil is to join the program of your brothers and I have written to him accordingly."

For the entire story, visit the IPT's website.

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