A European campaign aimed at ending the Israeli blockade of Gaza is likely orchestrated by the global Muslim Brotherhood and its European representatives. In January, a Gulf newspaper identified the “European Campaign to End The Siege in Gaza” (ECESG) as being run by the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), the umbrella group for the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. On Sunday, the website of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood reported that the ECESG issued what was described as an “urgent appeal” to Egypt to reopen the Rafah border crossing with Gaza. The reported also cited the following statements by FIOE President Chakib Ben Makhlouf to the leaders of Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia:
… the union of Islamic organizations in Europe appealed to the Egyptian president, the Saudi monarch and the Syrian president to work urgently on ending the suffocating Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip imposed more than ten months ago which is foreshadowing an unprecedented catastrophe. “The suffering in Gaza is no longer a regional problem, but it is now representing a challenge to the feelings of humanity all over the world except some forces which give the occupation the right to do what it likes without taking into account international laws and charters which hold it fully responsible for the humanitarian situation in the areas under its control,” Shakib Bin Makhlouf, the head of the union, underlined in a message sent to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. “You have promised Mr. president that you would not accept to starve the Palestinian people and we do believe that the conditions no longer allow more delay in saving the Gaza people in light of international reports warning of impending humanitarian catastrophe,” Shakib added in his letter to the Egyptian president. In his letters to Saudi monarch Abdullah Bin-Abdulaziz and Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad, the head of the union stated: “We in the union of Islamic organizations in Europe, the largest Islamic organization in the continent, we are appealing to you in the name of humanity and the strong ties that bind you with the people of Gaza, who are facing mass murder, to take a historical stand ending the siege on this people whose humanity and right to resist the occupation were denied by the hegemonist forces.
In addition to FIOE, several websites also listed a campaign by the same name and provide contact information for an organization called freedomforpalestine.org whose website is registered to a Dutch organization known as Palestijns Platform voor Mensenrechten en Solidariteit (PPMS). Intelligence sources in the Netherlands report on several links between officers of the PPMS and the local office of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) and the Dutch office of the Hamas fundraising charity known as the Al-Aqsa Foundation, also close to the Muslim Brotherhood in the Netherlands.
In early April, a far-left organization dedicated to support of Palestinian causes reported that:
On March 31st, the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, comprising around 30 international activists from the Basque country, Austria, Scotland, Norway, Italy, Netherlands, France, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, America and India attempted to get in to Gaza. The group left Cairo around 8 in the morning after a small demonstration on a bus plastered with Palestinian flags and posters about the continuing siege on Gaza. They made it over the Suez Canal, but were stopped at a checkpoint about 170 km from Rafah. There the Egyptian police refused to let them pass. The activists then left the bus and held a demonstration against the siege, but specifically against the complicity of European governments and the Egyptian government in continuing the siege. The roads leading onward were blocked and the Egyptian people inside the waiting cars expressed their solidarity with the people of Gaza.
Pictures of the event show a mixture of European and Arabic-appearing individuals participating in the event. A prior website advertising the event indicates that it was also sponsored by freedomforpalestine.org.
While not absolutely confirmed, it is likely that all of the above groups operating under the name “European Campaign to End The Seige in Gaza” are in fact the same group and are sponsored by the European Muslim Brotherhood. Ending the Israeli blockade of Gaza would no doubt serve the interests of the Hamas-led government there and since Hamas is essentially the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine, it can be said that the ECESG is likely a Hamas effort to support its own interests. Acting through “front” organizations is one salient characteristic of the global Muslim Brotherhood.