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Who Is Behind the Second Gaza Flotilla?
(Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Ehud Rosen - The second flotilla is coordinated by Muhammad Sawalha, a senior UK-based Muslim Brotherhood figure connected to Hamas. Many of the participating organizations can be directly linked with the Union of Good (UoG), a coalition of European charities affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which in 2008 was designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Treasury for transferring funds to Hamas. The UoG was initiated by Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood on a global scale, in 2000. Other main organizers include the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement (ISM), as well as far-left socialists from Europe and the U.S. Many of the flotilla's main organizers have stated that its prime aim is to create provocations and harm Israel's image. Thus, far from being a peaceful, humanitarian effort to support the Palestinians in Gaza, the flotilla should be seen as a major, pro-Hamas effort to delegitimize Israel by a "red-green alliance" of leftists and Islamists.