Proven Hamas involvement in Freedom Flotilla 2.0?

Now it appears that the infamous Dutch Hamas leader Amin Abou Rashed has also been present in recent days in training of the crew in Greece. El Maroudi: "Amin was present on the day the Dutch delegation, part of the non-violence training followed. Wilfred van de Poll, journalist for the wedding, just spoke with Amin about his presence and his role within the organisation. "The brain behind the fleet" has arranged the purchase of the boat. He also has a lion's share of the funding provided."

Dutch Article link


Please forgive the translation somewhat, this comes from a Dutch newspaper and was translated with Google Translate.


It appears that the involvement of Dutch Hamas leader Amin Abou Rashed in the organisation of elements of next week's Flotilla consists of funding and 'non-lethal' training, presumably against the expected Israeli Commandos. It also mentions that his involvment has been kept in the dark until now.

The entire Dutch media has left the flotilla due to not being allowed to cover the journey to brake the blockade in an unbiased form of reporting.

With the Freedom Flotilla 2.0 delayed to set sail some time next week, what do ATS users make of this article?


Regards, Skellon.

reply to post by Skellon


Well I think it's a risk on the part of the organisers of the flotilla to have someone openly involved with Hamas (if this turns out to be true), whether past or present, since it is bound to draw criticism from their opponents when they are already marginalised and have many people desperate not to see their flotilla set sail.

At the same time I think it would be common sense to have someone with intimate knowledge of whatever state apparatus they are going to be confronted with once they (if they) reach the Gaza strip, so it's not really a surprise that there is at least some involvement between the flotilla and the Gaza government. I mean the most common sense method of distributing the aid they are taking is to enlist the help of the established government (which happens to be Hamas)