Supporters of the Palestinian group Hamas gather during a protest in Gaza City on June 19, 2023, following an Israeli West Bank raid. Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank killed three Palestinians, in a raid that saw seven Israeli security personnel wounded and rare helicopter fire as the army said it pursued wanted suspects. (MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)
The arrest announced on Monday by Dutch investigators of a father and daughter last week for “large-scale financing” of Hamas in breach of E.U. sanctions was the direct result of an Israeli investigative series produced by Ad Kan, an Israeli activist group.
The series, “Shtula,” which means “plant,” aired on Channel 13 as a five-part series in October and November 2022.
The show’s title refers to the young Scandinavian woman who went undercover as a human rights activist to expose the connection between terrorist organizations, antisemitic BDS groups and so-called “human rights groups.”
One of those featured in the series was Amin Abu Rashid, described in the series as “the central figure of Hamas in Holland. He is considered one of the key people of the fundraising system of the organization in Europe.”
Amin Abu Rashid and his daughter Israa are widely believed to be the two suspects arrested by Dutch authorities. (According to Dutch law, the names of suspects are not released unless there’s a conviction.)
“My job is Israel down. That’s my job,” Abu Rashid says in broken English to the undercover agent, a Danish architecture student, at one point in the series. “2024 is the year Israel will be destroyed.”
Dutch authorities said that in addition to sending approximately €5.5 million ($6 million) to Hamas, the suspects are also believed to have participated “in a criminal organization whose purpose is to support Hamas financially.”
Abu Rashid leads the Stichting Israa (“Israa Foundation”) located in Rotterdam. The Israa Foundation is part of a network known as the Union of Good. The U.S. Department of the Treasury labeled the Union of Good a terrorist group in 2008.
During searches of a house in Leidschendam and a business in Rotterdam, investigators found cash and seized a bank account with a balance of around €750,000 ($820,000).
It’s a huge victory against Hamas, the Ad Kan group said in a statement.
For years, Abu Rashid presented the charity groups he led to the Dutch people as advocating for basic human rights, the NGO added.
“We bless the authorities in the Netherlands for not being tricked by the false veneer of human rights organizations for Palestine, promoted by Abu Rashid,” Ad Kan CEO Gilad Ach said after the arrests.
“Following our activities and research which aired in the ‘Shtula’ series and the materials we passed on to the Dutch authorities, it became clear to them that Amin Abu Rashid is the director of the Hamas network in the Netherlands,” he added.
Warning that similar terrorist front groups are operating in other parts of Europe, Britain and the U.S., Ach called on the intelligence and enforcement agencies on both continents to act to stop those organizations from hiding behind a false human rights front.
In a November 2022 report by Ad Kan provided to JNS, Abu Rashid is identified as one of three key figures behind an effort to link radical Islam with the radical left.
Abu Rashid participated in one of the Marches of Return protests along the Gaza-Israel fence in 2019. He also took part in the 2010 Gaza protest flotilla. In 2013, then-Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon declared Abu Rashid an outlaw as a “member of Hamas headquarters in Europe.”
Abu Rashid also buys churches in the Netherlands and turns them into mosques. Abu Rashid, who sees advancing Islam in the country as part of his pro-Hamas agenda, boasted that it was easy to convert churches as long as one had money, the report said.
Abu Rashid was also a central figure in the Netherlands’ branch of the al-Aqsa Foundation, part of the aforementioned Union of Good. The U.S. Treasury Department labeled the al-Aqsa Foundation a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity in 2003.
Ach told JNS, “Given Abu Rashid’s history, authorities should have been suspicious from the start as he was playing a key role in the new organization, the Israa Foundation, but now we believe they are taking this more seriously. Things are starting to move.”
Produced in association with Jewish News Syndicate
Edited by Alberto Arellano and Jessi Rexroad Shull
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