The Agricultural Jihad: From Jordanian Hamas to Gush Etzion
This is how Hamas student cells in Jordan lead tree-donation campaigns that seize strategic areas in Judea and Samaria while exploiting the laws of the Civil Administration – An investigation by Hakol Hayehudi – Part 2
By Elchanan Groner and Meir Ettinger | Hakol Hayehudi
15 Av 5784 – 15:59, 19/08/2024
Translation of הג’יהאד החקלאי: מחמאס ירדן לגוש עציון
PICTURE: Tree planting in Gush Etzion after the trees were donated by the Al-Quds Committee of the University of Jordan (screenshot)
After we surveyed in the first part of the investigation of Hamas Jerusalem, which organizations from Britain fund, and finances olive trees for the seizure of Area C and areas adjacent to fences in Judea and Samaria, the second part of Hakol Hayehudi’s investigation into the “Agricultural Jihad” exposes the Hamas student cells in Jordan that are leading agricultural takeover in Judea and Samaria in the name of jihad.
Watch the investigation:
APN and the Million Trees Project
To understand the background to the activity of the Hamas student cells in Jordan that we are about to expose, we need to go back a little and tell about “The Arab Group for the Protection of Nature” (APN), which operates from Jordan. It is ostensibly the largest body that has engaged in recent decades in agricultural takeover in Judea and Samaria. According to the organization’s publications, it is responsible for the planting of approximately 3 million fruit and non-fruit trees.
Many of its people are clear supporters of terrorism, and define the project as “green resistance (muqawama).” Thus one can see Muhammad Qatishat – director of the “Million Trees” project – who expressed support for the massacre carried out by Hamas, as well as words of praise and admiration for many terrorists.
At the head of APN stands Razan Zuayter; the vice-president is Rami Barhoush, and the organization’s CEO is Miriam Jaja. Zuayter defined the project as “resistance to the Zionist occupation, resistance that is a duty and a right.” On the official page it is also stated that “the war against the occupation is a war over land.”
A Jordanian writer who supports the organization published an advertisement of the organization about the planting of 13,000 trees and wrote: “13,000 nails in the coffin of the enemy…” And more from the organization’s campaign in the past year: “…the roots of the trees are soldiers that protect our Palestinian lands from confiscation; strengthen the Jerusalem Battalion, plant your resistance in the land of resistance.” More than once the organization has donated trees in memory of terrorists who murdered Jews.
A few years ago the organization “Im Tirtzu” published a study on the “green resistance” of the APN organization. From the study it emerges that the organization receives support from the Jordanian government and even received a letter of appreciation for its activity from the Jordanian Minister of Information. “Im Tirtzu” also published that the head of the organization, Razan Zuayter, said at a conference against “annexation” that strategic goals must be set for the liberation of Palestine from the sea to the river.
Another goal of the project is economic assistance through agriculture to the families of “shahids.”
Exploitation of Civil Administration Regulations in Order to Take Over Lands
Within the framework of the project there is exploitation of Israeli law for the purpose of taking over lands in Judea and Samaria and cutting the Jewish settlement continuum, with emphasis on Area C.
According to explanatory remarks written on the Facebook page of APN, Israel refrains from declaring state lands in cultivated areas – even when these are lands that did not belong by law to anyone. Thus more and more areas become “Palestinian.” According to the organization’s claim, in this way they succeeded in turning more than 130,000 dunams into “Palestinian lands” when they planted trees on them without anyone having ownership of the land.
The Mufti Ruled: Agriculture Is Considered Jihad
To the calls to donate for the planting of trees, people of the organization attached a “fatwa” – a religious ruling – from the mufti Muhammad Hussein, the mufti of Jerusalem on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. He determined that “agriculture on lands that are under the threat of ‘confiscation’ is considered jihad for the sake of Allah.”
Toward the recent fundraising campaign they published a video containing the inciting mufti Ikrima Sabri’s call to donate to the “lofty” goal.
Beyond the plantings, the organization held a ceremony awarding a prize to an Arab who, according to their claim, refused to sell a plot located inside the area of a settlement in Gush Etzion for an offer of 15 million dollars (the plot is apparently located inside the fence of Efrat or in Sde Boaz). At the ceremony Dr. Ahmad Shahruri, a figure from the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, spoke.
Similar to the conduct of the organization Muslim Hands that we exposed in the previous part of the investigation, here too the organization’s messages in English that are aimed at fundraising claim that the project deals with issues of “food security” and the climate crisis. They even try to recruit Christian support!
The Jerusalem Committee – The Hamas Cells in Jordanian Universities
In recent years, APN holds an annual fundraising campaign for the purchase of trees for planting in Judea and Samaria and especially in Area C. The campaign is called “Azra’ Sumudak” and they conduct it in cooperation with Hamas student cells in several universities in Jordan.
The peak of the campaign usually takes place by means of a day of broadcasts on Radio Husna, which is identified with the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. Within its framework employees of the organization and additional figures are interviewed and speak about the importance of the campaign.
The campaign also recruits support from figures identified with Hamas and connected to Jerusalem, such as the former mufti Ikrima Sabri, senior Murabitun figures Hadi Hilwani and Khadija Huweis, Muslim Brotherhood figures in Jordan such as Dima Tahboub. Various organizations from Jordan and other Arab countries participate in it, usually pro-Islamic ones such as the network of Islamic schools Al-Radwan (مدارس الرضوان) in Jordan.
The Hamas student cells in Jordan that are partners in the project are called “Lajnat Al-Quds” – the Jerusalem Committee. They lead activity in the spirit of Hamas that includes support and glorification of severe attacks and murderous terrorists, marking of organizational events of Hamas, glorification of the heads of Hamas terrorists, and more.
Despite this, the authorities in Israel have not yet outlawed these student cells, which transfer money into Israel freely and receive into Jordan delegations of Israeli residents.
These student cells are responsible for designated fundraising for the planting of trees in Judea and Samaria amounting to tens of thousands of dinars.
For example: in the past year trees were donated for planting in strategic places in Gush Etzion by those same Hamas student cells, and the symbols of the cells are printed on the signs that note the donors of the trees.
In the various publications of the student cells it is emphasized that the planting of the trees is part of the armed struggle and the attacks, and an integral part of the idea of “resistance” of Hamas.
Activists of the Al-Quds Committee are also partners in the fundraising for the “Lanterns of Resilience” project for the renovation of houses in the Old City of Jerusalem on behalf of the Engineers Association, with the aim of preventing their sale to Jews and in order to strengthen Hamas’s hold on Jerusalem – a project about which we previously published an investigation in Hakol Hayehudi.
Arab planting a tree on Jewish soil, in memory of a murderer!
From the University of Jordan (Amman) to Efrat
At the head of the committee at the University of Jordan (Amman) stands Abd al-Rahman Abu Aish. The committee’s content on the social networks includes support for suicide bombings and glorification of terrorists, and words of praise for master murderers such as Yahya Ayyash and the Hamas leadership.
The committee has close ties with the senior Murabitun figures Hindi Hilwani and Khadija Huweis, who appear at events of the committee, and with Raed Salah, head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement who was outlawed.
In November 2022 trees were planted in Gush Etzion (between Efrat and Neve Daniel), when on the signs that were placed at the site there is a logo noting the donation of Lajnat Al-Quds at the University of Jordan.
Yarmouk University – “The Olive Tree Will Call to the Muslim to Kill a Jew”
At the head of the committee at Yarmouk University stands Abd al-Rahim Saifi, who fully identifies with Hamas.
In the committee there is extensive activity in support of Al-Aqsa and many publications of support for Hamas and for severe attacks.
The cooperation with APN is close, and in the fundraising at the end of 2022–January 2023 they published in the committee donations of trees for the village of Khirbet Zakaria in Gush Etzion.
In another publication they note that the committee donated in 2019 360 trees to the lands of the village of Qatanna in the area of Har Adar.
In a post from 30.12.22 the organization publishes a letter according to which the donation of the tree is dedicated so that the trees will fulfill the famous hadith in Islam that says that the time of the resurrection of the dead will come only after the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them, and the trees themselves will cooperate with the Muslim fighters: “The Hour [of the resurrection of the dead] will not come until you fight the Jews; the Jew will hide behind stones or trees. And the stones and the trees will call out: ‘O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!’”
The Hashemite University – Trees in Memory of Terrorists
Like the other committees, this committee too posts publications that clearly prove its affiliation with Hamas, including support for suicide bombings and for the massacre in Neve Yaakov.
Trees were also donated in memory of the terrorists Assam and Saleh Barghouti who murdered the soldiers Yuval Mor Yosef and Yosef Cohen, may God avenge their blood, in the attack at Givat Asaf in 2018.
This committee donated the planting of thousands of trees, among them 1,450 seedlings in the area of Adam and Isawiya near Jerusalem.
Similar activity can also be seen at the University of Science and Technology – JUST, at the University of Naour, and at Al-Balqa University. The Hamas cell at Princess Sumaya University, for its part, is responsible for the planting of 420 trees in the area of the Tomb of the Prophet Samuel in the village of Nabi Samwil north of Jerusalem.
Why Have the Cells Not Been Declared Terrorist Organizations?
The investigation proves Hamas’s involvement in the agricultural takeover and the connection between ostensibly innocent agricultural activity and the goals of the “resistance” of Hamas and the deepening of its hold on the Arab public in Judea and Samaria.
As long as Israel does not declare these organizations as forbidden associations / part of the terrorist organization Hamas, there is a significant barrier in front of the authorities from acting against them within the framework of enforcement channels that relate to offenses involving terror funds.
Is the declaration not arriving because of lack of interest? Perhaps because of fear of Jordan’s reaction? We were not able to receive clear answers.
The full investigation will also be published in the weekly ‘Olam Katan’