Israeli citizens kidnaped by Hamas
Even before the Barbaric attacks of October 7, four Israeli attorneys were already working to stop the transfer of funds from the European Union to the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza. Their work dates back to 2009.
In recent years Israel allowed millions of dollars in funding to be transferred not only from the EU but also from the Arab Gulf State of Qatar to Gaza. The money was supposed to be used to pay the salaries of local civil servants who had not been paid in a long time. The funds were also intended for rebuilding projects in the Gaza Strip after so much of its infrastructure and residential buildings had been destroyed by Israeli attacks against Hamas bases there over the years.
Unfortunately, as has now been proven, Hamas used this money to acquire the materials needed to construct its terror tunnels that reached into the Israeli towns near Gaza that were destroyed and whose residents were massacred by it on October 7.
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Hamas also used this money for the fuel and components for its rockets, thousands of which have been launched indiscriminately at Israeli civilian centers over the past three weeks.
READ HERE THE FULL DOCUMENT: Eu Protection-signed 2009
It was also used to acquire the hang gliders flown by Hamas terrorists into Israeli territory on the day of the massacre, as well as drones that were used to destroy IDF surveillance equipment along the border.
Now, Qatar continues to coordinate with Hamas as the country pretends to offer its assistance as a mediator by claiming Hamas will release some of the more than 200 Israelis it now holds hostage in Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire. However, experts explain that any ceasefire would be used by Hamas to regroup and further entrench its forces in Gaza.
According to these four attorneys, it could have been possible to prevent money transfers to Gaza from both Qatar and the European Union, if the official authorities in Israel had listened to them.
In 2009, attorneys Mordechai Tzivin, Uri Yablonka, the chairman of the Movement for Government Fairness, Mordechai Eisenberg and Nechama Tzivin, appealed to the European Commission in Brussels demanding that it:
1. Stop the transfer of European money to Hamas and/or to any other organizations that are defined by the Israeli government as terrorist organizations.
2. Create transparency regarding all funding transferred to the Palestinian and Israeli organizations in the region (publishing notices in Israel in all of the official languages of the EU, in order to notify Israeli-European citizens), including sums given to Palestinian and Israeli associations involved in the peace process.
3. Prevent the entrance of persons who are defined by the government of Israel as terrorists and their leaders to the territories of the EU.
4. Prevent the misuse of European funds by non-profit organizations that receive and use them to finance terrorism.
Mordechai Tzivin
Adv. Mordechai Tzivin, who specializes in international and criminal cases, and also represents Arabs living in enemy countries (nations that do not recognize Israel) said, “Despite bringing up the issue again at the European Commission, and although the Israeli Foreign Ministry was aware of the problem, nothing was done.”
“It is possible that if the matter would have been handled properly,” he added, “the Europeans would have long ago ceased funding organizations controlled by Hamas. In turn, this might have slowed down Hamas’ rise to power.”
Tzivin also explained that, since the EU does not have any supervision or control over the funds they transfer to human rights organizations or UN organizations in Gaza it “deliberately ignores the fact that the funds end up in the hands of Hamas, which uses the money to strengthen its military power and not to improve the living conditions of the citizens of Gaza.”
Recently the EU Commission announced that was launching an EU Humanitarian Air Bridge operation consisting of several flights to Egypt to bring lifesaving supplies to humanitarian organizations on the ground in Gaza and that it was tripling its current humanitarian assistance for Gaza to 75 million euros ($80 million). As a result of this move, the letter written back in 2009 was resent to the European Commission, in order to encourage them to make a decision according to Article 3.5 of the European Treaty: stop the transfer of funds to the Gaza Strip because it does not matter which organization receives the money because each of these organizations is controlled by Hamas.
Tzivn lamented the fact that the State of Israel “does not help, does not cooperate and even ignores international legal initiatives by lawyers that may benefit it.”
Tzivin, together with Yablonka, were the first to file a complaint with the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC in 2013) against senior Hamas officials and that the State of Israel did not, for some reason, see the need to cooperate. This was in spite of the fact that one of the most prominent political commentators in Israel, Mr. Nahum Barnea, wrote in the Yediot Ahronoth Hebrew daily newspaper on August 15, 2014, that the complaint prevented the Palestinian Authority from filing complaints against Israel, for fear that the ICC would investigate their war crimes.
Barnea wrote:
“Is Abu-Mazen planning to complain about Israel in The Hague? In conversations with foreign diplomats, he says more or less the following: I do not want to go to The Hague; I’ll go there only if internal pressures won’t leave any other choice for me.
He isn’t going there because he promised [President] Obama and the impression that his interlocutors got is that there is another reason: He fears a counter complaint, which will get him and the PA in trouble.”
Since March 2013 such a complaint has been placed at the Hague, which was drawn up by two private lawyers, Mordechai Tzivin and Uri Yablonka. The complaint attributes to Abu-Mazen’s responsibility for the firing of rockets from Gaza, the kidnapping of citizens, car bombs, and suicide bombings. Abu-Mazen is according to the complainants responsible after the U.N. recognized the PA which he heads as an observer-state. A complaint by Abu-Mazen to the court will open the door for discussion of the counter complaint.”
Tzivin added that the time has come for the authorities in Israel to step back and help, or at least accompany the private initiatives of lawyers in Israel, who, not surprisingly, have already promoted international issues, at least from the declaratory point of view, which is of considerable importance. In this respect, Israel’s position is publicly accepted, which in itself influences world public opinion and helps Israel, especially in times of war. There is no greater proof of the need to help in the fight to stop the flow of money to Gaza than the massacre, abuse and kidnapping perpetrated by Hamas, on October 7, 2023, of Israeli civilians, old men, women, children and babies.
