A top Hamas leader wanted by the Israeli government has been revealed to be living in a London council property after being granted British citizenship in the early 2000s.
Former Hamas commander Mohammad Qassem Sawalha, 62, who previously ran the terror group’s armed operations in the West Bank before fleeing to Britain in the 1990s, has been revealed to be living in a London council property and even benefitted from a government programme to receive a £112,000 discount on his home, The Times of London reported.
Sawalha reportedly escaped from Palestine by using a relative’s passport to evade detection by Israeli security services and is still wanted as a fugitive by the Israeli government, who would arrest him on the spot were he to return to the region.
Despite being a top official in Hamas, he was still granted British citizenship in the early 2000s, seemingly contradicting Home Office guidance stating that anyone who “incites, justifies or glorifies” terrorist violence or “seeks to provoke others to terrorist acts” will typically be denied citizenship.
While the UK government proscribed Hamas’ armed faction as a banned terror organisation in 2001, it did not do the same for the alleged political side of the Palestinian group for another two decades after it was finally determined that such distinctions within Hamas were “artificial”.
Therefore, although he was a member of Hamas’s politburo between 2013 and 2017, Sawalha may not have committed a criminal offence for being part of the organisation due to the 20-year delay in designating the political arm of Hamas as a terror group.
Since being granted citizenship, Sawalha reportedly continued his involvement with Hamas, including allegedly helping launder money to the group in Gaza and the West Bank as well as holding talks about “revitalising” terrorist acts in Israel.
Sawalha’s lawyers claimed that such reports were “serious false allegations” and that their client is “a law-abiding British citizen.”
Sawalha has also publicly served as an ambassador of sorts for Hamas, having met with Russian officials in Moscow as a part of Hamas’ official delegation to the Kremlin in 2019. He was even invited to the UK Parliament by former far-left Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to discuss Gaza in 2015.
In addition to being granted British citizenship, the Hamas leader has also reportedly benefitted from the British taxpayer, having taken advantage of the government’s Right to Buy scheme to purchase their two-story North London home in 2021 for £320,700. Under the scheme, the local council in Barnet granted Sawalha a £112,300 discount on the property.
The presence of a wanted Hamas fugitive has caused outrage in Barnet, which is home to the highest Jewish population of any council in Britain with 56,616 Jews — approximately a fifth of the total population in the country — living in the area.
Council leader Barry Rawlings said he was “horrified to think [Sawalha] could be living in our midst,” adding: “We will liaise with other stakeholders including the police and the government in reviewing the full history of this case and will take all appropriate action.”
Rawlings noted that the Right to Buy scheme does not have safeguards for conducting background checks to determine if beneficiaries belong to a terror organisation.
“Even if it did, we would still have to operate within the law and unless someone is committing a crime this couldn’t be used to withhold the right to buy,” he noted.
Commenting on the revelations, a spokesman for Scotland Yard said: “In June 2020, the Met received a referral relating to a third party allegation made against a local authority, alleging a breach of the Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc. Act 2010.
“The referral was assessed by officers from the National Terrorist Financing Investigation Unit, a specialist team based within the Met’s counterterrorism command. It was determined that the evidential test was not met. No further action was taken.”