page_title: Qatar and state-sponsored terrorism
section_title: Hamas
hierarchical_section_title: Qatar and state-sponsored terrorism / Activities of various groups in Qatar / Hamas
caption_attribution_description: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, flanked by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid Al Attiyah, addresses reporters at the U.S. Ambassador's Residence in Paris, France, on July 26, 2014, before a trilateral meeting focused on reaching a cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]
context_page_description: Qatar has been accused of allowing terror financiers to operate within its borders, which has been one of the justifications for the ongoing Qatar diplomatic crisis that started in 2017. The country has been called "the Club Med for Terrorists" by Ron Prosor, an Israeli diplomat and "most two-faced nation in the world, backing the U.S.-led coalition against the militants of the Islamic State while providing a permissive environment", in the words of David S. Cohen, "for terrorist financiers to operate with impunity". Accusations come from a wide variety of sources including intelligence reports, government officials, and journalists.
  One of the leaked Podesta emails from August 2014, addressed to John Podesta, identifies Qatar and Saudi Arabia as providing "clandestine," "financial and logistic" aid to ISIL and other "radical Sunni groups." The email outlines a plan of action against ISIL, and urges putting pressure on Qatar and Saudi Arabia to end their alleged support for the group. Whether the email was originally written by Hillary Clinton, her advisor Sidney Blumenthal, or another person is unclear.
context_section_description: A number of countries have designated Hamas in all its parts a terrorist organisation. These countries include  Israel, the United States, Canada, European Union and Egypt. Some other countries designate only the Hamas military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades a terrorist organisation. In December 2013, Egypt designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. Hamas, as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, was in February 2015 also declared a terrorist organization. In June 2015, an Egyptian appeals court overturned the designation.
  More money flows from Qatar to Hamas than any other country.
  In 2014, Qatar had pledged $400 million to Hamas.
  
  In September 2014, Congress held a hearing about the role of Turkey and Qatar in terrorist financing. Top Democrats and Republicans at the hearing gave tough words to Qatar. Congressman Ted Deutch (D-FL) said:
  "Relationships with some of these countries are complicated . . . Support for Hamas is not complicated, and our response to their support for Hamas should not be complicated either."
   Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) said:
   "We must make our message clear: If you help finance Hamas, there will be significant consequences and they will be unpleasant. I hope Qatar and Turkey are listening."
  Qatar has continuously hosted Hamas politburo since 2012, when Khaled Meshal, Hamas' political leader, fled Syria for Qatar. However, Meshal had already found harbor in Qatar in the late 1990s, before he moved to Damascus in 2001. Over the past decades, Qatar has also offered shelter to several prominent Hamas affiliates: from Saleh al-Arouri, the founder of Hamas' military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, known for his ability to mastermind attacks from abroad who was reportedly hosted by Qatar after leaving Turkey in December 2015, to Husam Badran, the former leader of a Hamas cell and the current media spokesperson for Hamas who instigated several deadly suicide bombings during the Second Intifada and is based in Qatar since 2011. Along with Turkey, Qatar was the only country that endorsed Hamas for ousting the Palestinian Authority from the Gaza Strip in 2007. Shortly after, Qatar publicly pledged $250 million in aid for Gaza, devastated after the Israeli war, and soon rose as a lead actor in the Palestinian conflict. The relation between the Gulf country and the terrorist group was reinforced especially between 2008 and 2009 after several expression of mutual support, and especially after Qatar condemned the Gaza blockade.
  Former Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was the first head of state who visited Gaza after Hamas took power, in 2012. On that occasion, the Qatari ruler announced that Qatar would have devolved $400 million for aid and reconstruction works. So far, Qatar has disbursed over $1 billion to the rebuilding efforts, thereby ranking as the biggest donor for the Gaza strip.
  However, attempts to smuggle dual-use substances that could be used to produce explosives into Gaza have been detected and reported more and more frequently over the past years, and have raised concerns that foreign aid directed to the Gaza strip may be used by Qatar to finance Hamas.
caption: John Kerry standing with the Foreign Ministers of Turkey and Qatar during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict cease-fire negotiations
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