Israel funded the Palestinian movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, to weaken the Palestinian administration in the West Bank represented by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Fatah party, EU top diplomat Josep Borrel said, Euronews reported.
He complained that Israel opposes the creation of two states in the Middle East – Jewish and Arab.
“I insist that Israel, while continuing to reject this solution, has gone so far as to create Hamas itself. Yes, the Israeli government funded Hamas in an attempt to weaken the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority,” Borrell said.
In December, The New York Times (NYT) reported that Qatar had been funding Hamas for years and that Israel did not oppose the payments and even supported them. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied the allegations in a conversation with Politico.
The NYT also wrote that among Hamas’ sources of funding were its own companies that were involved in mining, poultry farming, building and road construction, etc. in various countries. Israeli intelligence knew about them, but the authorities did not back it up against these money flows.
1,608 total views, 4 views today
