In a letter to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, CFI Vice-Chairman Rt. Hon. Theresa Villiers MP has condemned Turkey’s support for the Hamas terror group, stating that reports that Hamas operatives have received Turkish passports “mark a disturbing shift from Turkey’s acquiescence of Hamas activities to the direct provision of support to militants”.
The former Cabinet Minister highlighted “troubling reports” that Hamas has been “conducting cyberwarfare and other activities from a secret headquarters in Istanbul for two years”.
From this base, “senior Hamas members have apparently purchased dual-use equipment for the manufacture of weaponry, coordinated cyber-operations and overseen surveillance of Hamas militants suspected of dissent”, the MP for Chipping Barnet writes.
This follows “alarming media reports over the summer that Hamas operatives have received Turkish passports with Turkish names that are different to their given names”.
She expressed her concerns that if Turkey is permitted to extend visa-free travel to EU countries, “this might be used to enable Hamas terrorists to carry out attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets on European soil and to disseminate radical Islamist ideology by expanding its network”.
“Given that Hamas members could be using pseudonyms, I hope the UK authorities will seek to obtain these individuals’ passport information from the Turkish authorities, in order to ensure that their movements can be closely monitored and that border check processes are not undermined”, the Conservative MP added.
Mrs Villiers urged the UK to consider proscribing the Hamas terror group in full: “Given that the UK Treasury lists the full group as being subject to UK Terrorism and Terrorist Financing sanctions, and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has a ‘policy of non-engagement with Hamas in its entirety’, I believe there is a strong case to proscribe all parts of the Hamas organisation”.
Currently, the UK only designates Hamas’s military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organisation. The European Union, United States, Canada, Jordan and Israel proscribe the entire organisation.
