The shooting attack carried out on Sunday by the sheikh and teacher from east Jerusalem, Fadi Abu Shahidam, who was evidently known to the police and Shin Bet as a prominent and influential Hamas activist – is a symptom of a more serious phenomenon that has been taking place in east Jerusalem in recent years, and which has only become worse since Operation Guardian of the Walls.
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Specifically, Hamas has infiltrated east Jerusalem under the disgracefully neglectful eye of the Israeli government and security forces, continually seizing more control of the Islamic holy sites in the city's east through legal supposedly NGOs that receive tens of millions of dollars in donations originating in Turkey.
These considerable funds are funneled by senior Hamas officials, namely Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, who heads the terrorist organization's "West Bank Department" – which sits in Turkey and whose staff enjoys broad freedom of activity granted to them by the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. These Hamas operatives are also aided by members of the global Muslim Brotherhood movement, which has targeted east Jerusalem in general and the Temple Mount in particular as part of its national, religious, and ideological strategy.
One only needs to see and hear the people setting the tone at the various Islamic holy sites on the Temple Mount and Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to understand just how strong the Palestinian terrorist group's grip is in those places. Not only has Hamas placed its people in every possible religious position in east Jerusalem, but they are also prevalent in east Jerusalem's education system – all while collecting paychecks from the Jerusalem municipality or Education Ministry.
These are religious extremists who serve as teachers and educators, and who disseminate their radical Islamist, antisemitic, and anti-Zionist credo to their Palestinian students in east Jerusalem's schools. One of these so-called teachers was Fadi Abu Shahidam, who made sure in advance to move his wife and children to Jordan as he was devising his deadly plan.
Meanwhile, even though Shahidam's extremist views were known to the Israel Police and intelligence services, he was allowed to continue spreading his radical and terroristic creed and receive his monthly salary from the Jerusalem municipality. As a matter of fact, he attended numerous professional training seminars partially paid for by his employers at the Education Ministry and city hall.
It's safe to say that the Shin Bet and various intelligence services from the Israel Police and IDF are capable of disrupting terrorist machinations and networks before they materialize – as evidenced by the recent wave of arrests carried out by the Shin Bet and IDF in Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem. However, this activity is just a drop in the ocean against the well-oiled machine run by Hamas and the Turkish NGOs in east Jerusalem as they constantly chip away at Israel's sovereignty there. At the same time, the deterrence of Israel's security and intelligence services is being eroded, and law enforcement is essentially non-existent in east Jerusalem.
Hamas realized long ago that radical Islamist belief alone is not enough to maintain its grip in east Jerusalem, and that it also needs massive sums of money. Sans any legal methods of transferring funds from Gaza, the West Bank, or Jordan to its operatives in east Jerusalem, the Turks stepped into this gaping vacuum. With these millions of US dollars that are channeled through these supposedly legal organizations – which operate in the city's east as official Turkish governmental and non-governmental organizations – Hamas is enhancing its presence and foothold in east Jerusalem. All of this, suffice it to say, is out in the open, without fear of punishment or repercussion.
It is incumbent upon Israel to dry up these financial sources. Failure to do so by the relevant authorities in Israel means that sooner or later we will merely have superficial control of the Temple Mount in particular and east Jerusalem in general. Control of these places will, for all intents and purposes, belong to Hamas.
In fact, there are more than a few people in east Jerusalem who argue this is already the case and that it could get worse when some of the coalition funds promised to the Ra'am party are distributed to the NGOs and charity organizations in east Jerusalem that belong to the Islamic Movement – which doesn't hide its connections with the Turkish organizations operating there.
In Israel, officials tend to downplay and underestimate the value of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but it is well worth noting the determined manner in which the PA's security apparatuses act against Hamas activity in the West Bank. Any attempt by Hamas – and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as well – to rise up and organize in areas controlled by the PA is put down with a heavy hand. And any money source belonging to Hamas and its proxy organizations in the West Bank is confiscated and appropriated by the PA.
This heavy hand employed by the PA's security apparatuses has produced more than a little cynicism and dark humor among Palestinian operatives, who admit with little reservation that given the choice between interrogation at the hands of the Israeli Shin Bet or in a PA Preventive Security Service cellar, Hamas operatives very much prefer the cushy conditions afforded by the Shin Bet. If this wasn't so sad, it really could be funny.
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