A Union of Good website is reporting that plans are underway for three new convoys to break the “siege of Gaza.” According to the report:
The coordinator general of “Miles of Smiles 4” convoy Dr. Issam Youssef,who arrived to Gaza two days ago, revealed that preparations are going on to launch three new convoys to break the siege of Gaza, during the next three months. Yousef has reaffirmed , during meeting with Prime Minister of Gaza caretaker government Isamil Haneyyah, that the convoys will continue, calling all concerned institutions to move for breaking the blockade of Gaza. He added that another convoy to be launched by the end of Ramadan, a second between the two Eids, and a third one during the Adha Eid ( the sacrifice holiday) noting that the international solidarity with Gaza and its inhabitants is increasing day after day. “
An earlier post reported that Issam Mustafa (aka Issam Youssef, Essam Mustafa, Essam Youssef), the Managing Trustee of the U.K. INTERPAL, had met at that time with the Hamas Prime Minister of Gaza in connection with an earlier Miles of Smiles convoy.
According to a NEFA Foundation report, INTERPAL is perhaps the most important of the charities comprising the Union of Good, a coalition of charities headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi which helps to raise funds for Hamas. The Union of Good was banned by Israel in 2002 and was recently designated a terrorist entity by the United State. INTERPAL itself had been designated by the US in 2003. Previous posts have discussed the UK Charity Commisison’s order that INTERPAL sever its ties with the Union of Good, likely only a formality given that Essam Mustafa, the former head of the Union of Good is still the Managing Trustee of Interpal. The U.S. has attempted to persuade the U.K. government to do something about INTERPAL but the U.K. appears reluctant to anything which in their view would further antagonize its Muslim population.
Generally unreported by the media is that the entire Gaza convoy movement is largely a project of the Global Muslim Brotherhood. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) has published an article by Ehud Rosen on the role of the Global Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas in the unsuccessful second Gaza Flotilla, now underway. In January, the JCPA published a report titled “Turkey, the Global Muslim Brotherhood, and the Gaza Flotilla” by analyst Steven Merley. The “Miles of Smiles” convoys are also being coordinated and operated by the GMB.