Pro-Hamas NGO funded by the EU

Priority question for written answer P-001656/2024
to the Commission
Rule 144
Jean-Paul Garraud (PfE), Mélanie Disdier (PfE), Anne-Sophie Frigout (PfE), Aleksandar Nikolic (PfE), Marie Dauchy (PfE), Angéline Furet (PfE), Philippe Olivier (PfE), Marie-Luce Brasier-Clain (PfE), André Rougé (PfE), Gilles Pennelle (PfE), France Jamet (PfE), Pascale Piera (PfE), Matthieu Valet (PfE), Rody Tolassy (PfE), Pierre Pimpie (PfE), Malika Sorel (PfE), Julien Sanchez (PfE)

In a post on 2 August, Al Sharq Youth, the youth section of Turkish organisation Al Sharq Forum, called for a 'final tribute' to be paid to Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas who was killed by an Israeli airstrike on 31 July. The association even invited its followers to go to Hagia Sofia in Istanbul on Saturday 3 August to commemorate this person they call a 'martyr'.

Numerous countries and organisations, including the European Union, consider Hamas to be a terrorist organisation.

However, the EU has heavily subsided the Al Sharq Youth association, which is close to the Muslim Brotherhood. Between 2021 and 2023, the association received no less than EUR 100 279 in European funding for four projects.

• 1.What does the Commission think about an association it subsidises paying tribute to the leader of Hamas?
• 2.Will the Commission stop funding this association, which, by paying tribute to Haniyeh, is indirectly condoning terrorism?
• 3.Will the Commission ask this association to pay back the money it received in previous years?

Submitted: 9.9.2024