Iranian media has identified a Hamas/U.K Muslim Brotherhood leader as the coordinator of the current Gaza flotilla. According to a report by Iranian Press TV:
Press TV talks to Mohammed Sawalha, Gaza aid flotilla coordinator, to ask him about the aims and plans of the flotilla.
Press TV: Welcome to the show sir. Where are we now with the flotilla plans?
Sawalha: We are now in the last stage of preparations. We have now around 12 ships ready to sail and we already have hundreds of activists in the area there in Greece and other countries and we are just waiting till the end of the month to leave.
Press TV: What have you been preparing for this year’s flotilla in light of what happened last year?
Sawalha: We know how the Israelis behave and we are putting it in our minds that the Israelis can do anything and all the activists are really ready to face the Israelis policies.
We understand that the Palestinians are paying the price everyday inside Palestine because of the crimes of the Israelis to keep the siege, you know, by killing the Palestinians and not allowing even medicine and food to cross to Gaza.
Read the rest here.
The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) has published a profile of Hamas activist and U.K. Muslim Brotherhood leader Muhammad Kazem Sawalha, describing him as follows:
Muhammad Kazem Sawalha is a senior Hamas activist who publicly supports jihad and was formerly involved in both political and operational Hamas activities in Judea and Samaria, including running the terrorist operative infrastructure. He was wanted by the Israeli security services but in October 1990 used forced documents to escape to Jordan, and from there went to Britain. In Britain he has been involved in intensive anti-Israeli activities within the Islamic community, with the Muslim Brotherhood and with British organizations providing support for the de facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip.
The ITIC profiles also details Sawalha’s ties to the U.K. Muslim Brotherhood.
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) has recently published an almost hundred page report titled “Turkey, the Global Muslim Brotherhood, and the Gaza Flotilla” which provides extensive background on the years leading up to the 1st Gaza Flotilla. The JCPA report abstract states:
There is strong evidence for Turkish governmental involvement in the Gaza flotilla incident, with Turkish government support channeled through the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood network. Since 2006, Turkey has become a new center for the Global Muslim Brotherhood. The IHH was not acting alone but rather was an integral part of a Turkish Muslim Brotherhood network.
With respect to the Global Muslim Brotherhood, report’s second conclusion states:
The Gaza flotilla incident brought into sharp focus an even more significant long- term development: the growing relationship between the Erdogan government and the Global Muslim Brotherhood, which has given rise to some of the most notorious Islamist terrorist groups – from al-Qaeda to Hamas. Since 2006, Turkey has become a new center for the Global Muslim Brotherhood, while the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip acted as the main axis for this activity.
The second flotilla appears to have been organized largely by the European Campaign To End The Siege On Gaza (ECESG) which has operated in the past from the same address and has the same telephone as the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) which has strong ties to Hamas and the Global Muslim Brotherhood.