An Israeli diplomat writing for a Jewish news publication has provided useful information on two UK media outlets tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas. The report begins:
August 31, 2016 Western governments invest tremendous effort in exposing the funding routes that allow terrorist organisations to flourish and carry out deadly attacks. In a world where social media enables online radicalisation, it’s also vital to expose those who provide the content that engenders this hateful agenda.
This week I ran across yet another blog post by the Hamas terror group, on its active English-language Twitter feed. The piece was originally written by an anti-Israel activist and posted on Middle East Monitor (MEMO), a self-ascribed news site that has links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
MEMO is populated by bloggers and activists and directed by Daoud Abdullah, a senior researcher at the London-based Palestinian Return Centre – an organisation outlawed in Israel for its connections with Hamas and acting as the terror group’s de-facto arm across Europe.
When you read stories on the site directed by Mr Abdullah, you’re reading material edited by senior editor Ibrahim Hewitt, who is also director of Interpal, a British Muslim charity designated as a terror-supporting group in Israel. The charity is also a longstanding member of the United States Treasury’s list of specially designated terrorist organisations.”
Read the rest here.
In June of this year, the GMBDW reported that MEMO was one of the organizations that funds Spinwatch, a “public interest” organization with a history of anti-Israeli activism. (The GMBDW notes that we sometimes rely on MEMO for reporting on Islamist activities.)
The report goes on to discuss a second media organization known as the Middle East Eye:
The other, more recent media player in this dubious category is Middle East Eye (MEE), a UK-based news site set up in late 2013, producing similar material to MEMO. According to a 2014 news report, the man under whose name the web domain for MEE is registered is also the head of policy development at Interpal.
The material produced by MEMO and MEE is heavily shared on the official Hamas website and social media accounts. It is not merely copied but proudly displayed with the name of the UK site. In 2016 Hamas posted material from these two sources 51 times, making for an astounding 42% of all external tweets (that is to say, other than its own press releases). The second-favorite news source for Hamas is Palestine Chronicle, which consequently, is edited by MEE consultant Ramzy Baroud.
Read the rest here.
In June 2014, the GMBDW reported on an investigation by The National, a UAE newspaper, and which we find to be accurate based on our own investigation. The National report, among other things, traces the links between the Middle East Eye and the Global Muslim Brotherhood.
For the full National report, go here.