The attitude of the center-right coalition in Rome to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians as well as the actions of the authorities against suspected Hamas accomplices in Italy are becoming the focus of the political debate at the turn of the year. Since last weekend, special police units to combat terrorism and extremism (DIGOS) and officers from the anti-mafia authority have been carrying out coordinated actions against suspected supporters of the radical Islamic terrorist organization in Italy.
The focus of the investigation is the chairman of the Association of Palestinians in Italy, Mohammad Hannoun, who, along with six other suspects, has been in custody since December 27th. The Italian authorities also issued international arrest warrants against two other people who are abroad. The investigators accuse Hannoun, who has worked as an architect in Genoa since the early 1990s, and his accomplices of having passed on more than seven million euros to Hamas since 2001.
The flow of money is said to have increased sharply after Hamas’ terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said years of investigations had exposed alleged fundraising for the Palestinian population as direct support for Hamas. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her “appreciation for the extremely complex operation”.
In an initial hearing before the examining judge, Hannoun did not comment on the allegations. According to his lawyers, during an interrogation in Genoa prison, he assured that he had “never financed Hamas directly or indirectly” but had only “collected donations for charitable purposes for the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the refugee camps” for a good three decades.
Hannoun demonstrated with Greta Thunberg
Hannoun is considered the most prominent representative of the Palestinians in Italy and has appeared at numerous demonstrations, including alongside Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Hannoun also maintained relationships with numerous politicians on the Italian left, particularly the left-wing populist Five Star Movement.
Former Prime Minister and Five Star leader Giuseppe Conte dismissed the allegations made against him and his party in connection with Hannoun’s arrest as a maneuver to distract from the mass protests “against the ongoing genocide” in the Gaza Strip. Conte argues that the Meloni government shares responsibility for this genocide because of its support for the Israeli leadership under Benjamin Netanyahu.
In recent weeks there have been repeated pro-Palestinian mass protests in Italy as well as a general strike by left-wing trade unions against Meloni’s center-right coalition, which has been criticized as being one-sidedly pro-Israel.
Meanwhile, the government has suffered another defeat in court in the dispute over Imam Mohamed Shahin, whom it denounced as a Hamas supporter. The Turin imam was taken into custody pending deportation on November 24th on charges that he had trivialized the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th, 2023 as a legitimate act of resistance in sermons and public statements. After a court in Turin ordered Shahin’s release from deportation detention in Sicily in mid-December, an appeal court rejected the government’s appeal at the end of December.
Shahin’s lawyers had argued that the imam soon distanced himself from his statement that the Hamas massacre was “neither a crime nor an act of violence.” In addition, if Shahin were to be deported to his home country of Egypt, he would have had to expect to be “arrested, tortured and killed.”
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sharply criticized the judges’ rulings, saying they were political and not legal rulings. The Interior Minister’s expulsion decision against the imam was made because Shahin represented “a concrete and serious threat to the security of the state.” The government “cannot defend the security of Italians if every one of our initiatives is thwarted by judges,” complained Meloni.
