Erdogan’s Turkey is meddle in internal Israeli affairs by investing large amounts of money in so-called ‘charity’ activities in Arab Jerusalem. According to the Shin Bet security agency, an “investigation points to the deep involvement of Hamas members in Turkey,” coordinating and promoting terrorist activities in Judea and Samaria.

By Yochanan Visser

In the run-up to the US Embassy move to Jerusalem, Turkey, together with the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, is pumping a quarter of a billion dollars into the Islamification of the city, according to Israel’s Hadashot News (formerly Channel 2 News).

The Wakf, the Muslim custodian of the Islamic holy places on the Temple Mount, and a slew of Islamist organizations in Israel’s capital received the bulk of the money officially to ‘rescue’ the holy sites and to finance ‘renovations.’

View of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Israel. – Photo: Berthold Werner/Wikimedia

Israeli security agencies, however, fear the money will end up financing fresh riots once the US moves its embassy to Jerusalem on May 14, a day before the Palestinian Arabs commemorate the so-called Nakba, the flight of roughly 550,000 Arabs before and during the 1948 War of Independence in Israel.

Erdogan’s Turkey, in particular, is trying to meddle in internal Israeli affairs by investing large amounts of money in so-called dawa (charity with a mission) activities by nonprofits and grassroots organizations in Arab Jerusalem.

“The Turks fund a great part of the dawa activities in the city, and their representative is Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri, a former grand mufti of Jerusalem and the most prominent representative of the Muslim Brotherhood,” according to Dr. David Koren and Ben Avrahami, two advisers on Arab affairs to the Jerusalem Municipality.

The Turkish activities in Jerusalem are part of “a wider process of creating regional Turkish hegemony at the expense of other players,” according to the two researchers.

This “wider process” includes allowing Hamas terrorists operating freely from Turkish soil where they raise and launder money for the Izz-a-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

In February, the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet in Hebrew) arrested two suspects, including a Turkish citizen, on suspicion of working for Hamas in Turkey.

“Turkish adviser Adnan Basha, who is close to Turkish government officials, set up a company called SADAT, which was tasked with assisting Hamas with money and weapons,” according to Investigative Project, which added that a former Turkish general was aiding the company.

SADAT employees reportedly also could have helped Hamas in obtaining drones, while senior Hamas terrorist Zaher Jabarin is coordinating and promoting terrorist activities in Judea and Samaria from Turkey, according to the ISA.

The goal of Jabarin and his Turkish accomplices is to create a new Palestinian Army that will be trained to fight Israel.

“During the investigation, it became clear that Hamas is in direct contact with Turkish authorities via Jihad Ya’amur, a (Hamas) terrorist who was involved in the (1994) abduction of IDF soldier Nahshon Waxman,” who was murdered by Hamas during a rescue attempt by the Sayeret Matkal unit of the IDF, the ISA said in a statement.

The ISA investigation also exposed a huge money laundering scheme in Turkey that was overseen by Jabarin.

Hamas terrorists founded another company named IMES  “which served as a cover for the laundering of millions of US dollars that were transferred to the Gaza Strip and various countries,” according to the ISA.

The agency also revealed Turkish authorities turned a blind eye to Hamas operations in Turkey, and even encouraged the organization’s activities in the country.

Last week, the ISA again released information showing Turkey is collaborating with Hamas in its endless war against Israel.

Yassin Rabia, a prominent Hamas terrorist who was freed from an Israeli prison under the deal that exchanged more than 1,000 Palestinian terrorists for captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, is said to be working from Gaza with Hamas operatives in Turkey in order to finance new terror operations in Judea and Samaria.

The Hamas cell had transferred more than 150,000 euros to different locations throughout Judea and Samaria in order to advance Hamas’ secret terror program in the area.

Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan – Photo: Wikimedia Commons

“The investigation points to the deep involvement of Hamas members in Turkey and the Gaza Strip in efforts to advance Hamas activities in Judea and Samaria,” the ISA said.

Helping Hamas launching fresh terror attacks in Judea and Samaria is not enough for Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however.

At the end of March, he called for the forming of a 5-million man Islamic army with a $175 billion budget to attack Israel simultaneously from multiple fronts.

View original Israel Today publication at:
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/33939/Default.aspx