A football match between the Palestinian national team and South African Western Cape XI team was held yesterday, following much promotion and involvement of Hamas-affiliated organizations, such as the Al-Quds Foundation and one of its tributaries, Youth for Al-Quds.The promotions also featured a wide array of tributes to the terrorist group that slaughtered, murdered, raped and kidnapped thousands of Israeli citizens last October. A second match is scheduled for next Sunday, February 18.South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was also present at the match, held at Cape Town’s Athlone Stadium, where he delivered a speech calling for “Free Palestine” and commending the late arch-terrorist “comrade Yasser Arafat.”Before the Palestinian anthem, shouts of “Allahu Akbar” could be heard from the stands.
Hamas supporters as far as the eyes could see
The match was attended by hundreds of viewers, many of whom wore T-shirts featuring the logos of Hamas and its terrorist militia, the Al-Qassam Brigades, as well as the message “Hamas – the resistance.” Other participants wore Al-Qassam head scarves.
One large sign read “South Africa supports Hamas,” featuring pictures of Hamas and Al-Qassam founders and leading figures, such as Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Ismail Haniyeh, Khaled Meshaal, Abu Obeida, and others.The event cost Cape Town taxpayers at least 400,000 Rands ($20,000), despite the announcement by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis that the city would allocate the stadium for free for the two scheduled matches.According to the organizers, the date of the match was also no coincidence: it coincided with the date on which South African anti-apartheid activist and former president Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
The Hamas connection
One of the main promoters of the match was a group named Youth for Al-Quds South Africa. This self-described youth organization is part of a network featuring branches across the Islamic world and beyond. It is a tributary of the Al-Quds International Foundation, a Beirut-based group designated by the US and Israel over a decade ago as a financial façade acting on behalf of the terrorist group Hamas.Al-Quds Foundation South Africa was at the center of a January 2024 expose by The Jerusalem Post, which described a network of organizations funneling funds to Hamas-affiliated groups through major South African banks Standard, ABSA, and Nedbank. Notably, the foundation has since decided to suspiciously delete its website and a couple of Facebook accounts, leading to the belief that their offshoot, Youth for Al-Quds, allows them to remain active under a different name.In the same context, it is worth mentioning that one of the respectable attendees who came to honor the Palestinian team’s arrival at the airport was Sheikh Ebrahim Gabriels, head of the South African branch of the US terrorist-designated Al-Quds Foundation.Youth for Al-Quds South Africa also sent representatives to attend a gala with the Palestinian team. They promoted the ticket selling of the match on their social media accounts, and had their logo shown on a greeting welcoming the delegation at the airport placed prominently beside the logos of the ANC, the South African Communist Party, and the Muslim Judicial Council SA. The latter is reportedly affiliated with Hamas’s umbrella organization for fundraising, known as the “Union of Good.”Youth for Al-Quds lists their address at 5 Gatesville Rd., Gatesville; sharing the same address with An-Nur Educational Center, an Islamic educational establishment formed in 2001 and registered as an NPO in 2006.