Mohammad Hannounpresident of the Palestinians in Italy association, was reported for incitement to commit crime by the Digos of Milan for his intervention a week ago in favor of the attacks by Israeli fans in Amsterdam. In particular, the Police investigation refers to the proPal march on Saturday 9 November, when the sixty-two-year-old Jordanian, resident in Genoa, had called from the van for the participants’ applause in favor of those who had beaten the Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters in trip to Holland for the match against Ajax. Hannoun, microphone in hand, in front of a crowd displaying Palestinian flags and a photo of Yahya Sinwar, declared: «First of all, let’s send a round of applause to the youth of Amsterdam. A round of applause to all the young people, boys and girls, who taught a lesson.” Furthermore, Hannoun was served with a mandatory expulsion order from the police commissioner Bruno Megalewith a ban on returning to the Municipality of Milan. On October 7, 2024, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated three individuals and a fictitious charity who are major international financial supporters of Hamas, as well as a Hamas-controlled financial institution in Gaza .
Among the sanctioned individuals there is precisely Mohammad Hannounwho was listed by Washington as «an Italy-based Hamas member who founded the Charity Association of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, or Associazione Benefica di Solidarietà con il Popolo Palestiniane (ABSPP), a fictitious charity in Italy which ostensibly raises funds for humanitarian purposes, but in reality helps finance the military wing of Hamas. As an ABSPP leader, Hannoun has sent money to Hamas-controlled organizations since at least 2018. He solicited funding for Hamas with senior Hamas officials and sent at least four million dollars to Hamas over a ten-year period.” In July 2023, the Israeli Defense Ministry asked Italian police to seize Hannoun’s money. The investigation conducted by the Shin Bet, the Israeli internal intelligence agency, revealed that 500 thousand euros were at the disposal of the architect who in the past had been accused by Israel of having hidden financial support for the Palestinian jihadists. A thirty-two-year-old Egyptian citizen residing in the hinterland is also being investigated for the same crime of “incitement to crime”: on the occasion of the same procession he had “publicly exhibited a sign with the photo of the late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, former leader of the terrorist organization Hamas, with a writing in Arabic”, as stated in a note from the Police Headquarters. The green light from Milan has also been issued for him.
The notice of approval arrived in the early afternoon of Saturday 16 November, an hour before the start of yet another demonstration in favor of Hamas which started at 3pm from the Porta Genova station square and ended in Piazzale Medaglie d ‘Gold after crossing the Porta Romana area. And how he took it Mohammad Hannoun? In the phone call transmitted via megaphones by the organizers of the demonstration, the person who on 10 October 2023, just three days after the massacre, interviewed by Rai3 declared: «The Hamas attack is self-defense», once again took on the role of the persecuted victim, « a punishment to silence all those who support the Palestinian people. My commitment is always there for the Palestinian people and their legitimate resistance. I will never stop.” Then he added: «My lawyers reassured me: there is no incitement to violence, racism or anything. My speech was very clear. We denounced the crimes of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans who vandalized, burned and beat young Arab Moroccan citizens of Amsterdam. We denounced these criminal acts and thanked the young people who stopped this violence and crimes by Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. We have not instigated anyone to violence, we have always been against violence and in fact our march is to denounce the violence on the part of the Israeli authority which continues to exterminate the population of Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank.”
Then he concluded by sending a message to us journalists defined as «corrupt, bastards and sons of bitches who took part of my speech last Saturday: you can never make me shut up. I will continue in my fight because it is a just fight for an oppressed people.” Here Hannoun is confusing: it is not the journalists who sanctioned him as a financier of Hamas terrorism but the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Treasury Department. We weren’t even the ones who banned him from going to Milan but the decision comes from the security authorities who listened to his words. We limit ourselves to reading, listening and reporting the things that Hannoun has been saying for years and in particular since the war began between the terrorist organization that he supports and the State of Israel which reacted to the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023 where 1,200 Israelis died, there were hundreds injured and 247 people taken hostage, many of whom are still (perhaps) in the hands of Hamas. Of them Hannoun on 13 October 2023 he said: «We have seen the attitude of our Italian, European, American governments and some Arab countries who have sided in favor of Israel, who have started to cry for the victims, who have even told lies to encourage, to compare Hamas to ISIS. All this, to attack the Palestinian resistance.”
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