A man was convicted of financing Hamas with NIS 4 million over the course of a decade through a charity affiliated with both the terrorist organization and the Jordanian Wakf, the Jerusalem District Court ruled on Tuesday.
Faris Totah, who had previously been imprisoned in 2004 for Hamas activism, was accused of raising and transferring around NIS 100,000 to the Janat Zakat Al-Quds Association every three months from 2012-2022. Totah claimed that he had only transferred sums to the charity at such a level in the last two years.
Almost NIS 70,000 was seized by authorities. Totah claimed that he had been saving up for a new car, but Khaled Sabah, Totah's boss, said that the money was destined for him. Sabah later retracted this statement.
Were funds transferred to Hamas through a charity?
The funds were allegedly sent to the families and orphans of slain terrorists, though Totah claimed that it was a legitimate charity sending funds to the needy and orphans. Sabah said that 90% of the funds went to families not part of Hamas.
The suspect worked for Khaled Sabah, a man who claimed in messages that during a trip to Turkey, he had been appointed one of the heads of Hamas in Jerusalem. Sabah was reportedly released from prison in 1994 after serving 12 years for offenses connected to operations with Fatah. He was said to have joined Hamas during his incarceration. Sabah's own court case is ongoing. The prosecution claimed that Sabah was not only a well-known Hamas operative but was on the Janat Zakat Al-Quds board and according to some testimonies worked for the Wakf.
Relatives and co-workers denied that Totah, Sabah, or the association were affiliated with Hamas. Totah claimed that he also didn't know that the organization or Sabah were affiliated with Hamas, and that he shouldn't be charged because the association wasn't on a terrorist watch list.
The court doubted that Totah wasn't aware of Sabah's connections, given the defendant's own past relations with Hamas, and his long friendship with Sabah.
Janat Zakat Al-Quds has a convoluted background, with the court accepting that it was founded as a Wakf, but at some point Hamas had allegedly taken it over. Internal documents of the association have Waqf signage and the association works out of Wakf offices.
Sabah gave conflicting remarks in the investigation and court. Sabah alternatively claimed that the association was controlled by Hamas toward Hamas objectives, affiliated with Hamas through its majority Hamas board membership, or Waqf owned. There was also confusion about the structure of the organization -- at times Totah claimed that he worked for a separate Israeli organization rather than the Jordanian association, but testimony indicated that they were the same organization registered in both states.