Amin Abu Rashid, President of the European Palestinians Conference (EPC) may no longer be able to lead humanitarian campaigns providing aid to Palestinian camps, as he previously did. And the Dutch activist of Palestinian descent may have to wear more than the bulletproof vest he wore while leading a relief campaign to the Yarmouk Camp for Palestinian refugees in Damascus, as he could be tried for high treason.

On May 27, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) boycotted the 20th annual EPC meeting in the Swedish city of Malmö, accusing the organizers of being linked to terrorist organizations, while claiming that the event’s sole aim was to strike at the PLO as representative of the Palestinian people and divide them.

Such accusations were absent from previous sessions of the EPC, which was founded in 2003. They were held in countries such as Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, the United Kingdom, and Sweden, always in the presence of Palestinian embassy representatives. The accusations did not surface at the 2006 EPC session, also held in Malmö, when the Palestinian ambassador to Sweden Salah Abdel-Shafi delivered President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech.

Charges

The accusations against the EPC include receiving funding from the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, supporting a Zionist agenda and the Islamic State in Gaza, as well as “job sharing” between the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip and Israel in the West Bank. The Fatah movement furthermore linked the EPC to the Muslim Brotherhood’s attempts to circumvent the PLO.

Although Fatah and Hamas previously confirmed their adherence to the reconciliation agreement signed in October 2022, the two factions returned to exchanging accusations months before the EPC meeting in Malmö.

Hamas attacked Fatah, saying it was trying to prevent Palestinians from carrying out operations against Israel and cooperating with Israel to eliminate the “resistance,” by preventing Hamas from expanding its operations from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. 

Fatah accused Hamas leaders of waging battles for money, while living in luxury outside Gaza, drowning in agreements with Israel, and boasting about Palestinian sacrifices. The charges followed Fatah’s announcement it would take part in the security conference held in March in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.  Israel too participated. 

Fatah considered the Hamas accusations a call for internal fighting between the Palestinian people and its security services, similar to what happened in Gaza in 2007. Fatah denounced the accusation of cooperating with Israel as that would entail treason.

In an interview with Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan on May 26, EPC President Amin Abu Rashid reiterated Hamas’ accusations that Fatah is collaborating with Israel. He also claimed that the PLO’s criticism of the EPC was influenced by Israel. According to him, the PLO had received instructions “from above” to undermine the EPC from within, as Israel has failed to ban it.

However, during a press conference on June 6, Abu Rashid reaffirmed that the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, although he criticized the representation by highlighting the absence of elected institutions within the organization. He called on the Palestinian people to elect their leadership.

Abu Rashid’s statements reflect the core of the dispute hindering a comprehensive Palestinian reconciliation. Fatah aims to conduct Palestinian presidential and legislative elections to end the division, after which elections can be held within the PLO. However, the proposition is rejected by the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine and Hamas, as they seek to maintain control over the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Accusations

The Palestinian criticism of the EPC has triggered an intense debate in Sweden. The Israeli embassy in Sweden criticized the Swedish politicians who participated in what they referred to as a “hate conference,” stating it effectively legitimizes Hamas, an organization classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States, and others.

The media accused Abu Rashid of being affiliated with Hamas after photos featuring Abu Rashid alongside Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas Political Bureau were circulated. Abu Rashid has denied the allegations, asserting he has no affiliation with any Palestinian organization. 

He explained that the photograph with Haniyeh was taken during his visit to Gaza as part of a European humanitarian relief convoy and asked whether it was reasonable to categorize European people, who had their picture taken with Haniyeh, as members of Hamas.

Haniyeh previously attended the EPC, which was established by the Palestinian Return Center (PRC), an advocacy group established in the United Kingdom in 1996, which was approved by the UN in 2015 as a non-governmental organization. Israel, however, classifies the PRC as a branch of Hamas. 

In his 2021 research paper, Syrian historian Sami Moubayed discusses the concept of hidden identities within the Muslim Brotherhood movement (MB) and highlights individuals as Abu Rashid and PRC President Majid al-Zeer, who he believes to be “heavyweights in Europe who call the shots.”

According to Moubayed, tracing the activities of MB affiliates in Europe has always been a challenge, due to their elusive non-transparent nature. Such affiliations are often concealed beneath layers of charitable endeavors, NGOs and veiled solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Moubayed argues that the main difficulty in identifying MB members and affiliates in Europe stems from the movement’s long-standing practice of concealing its activities. According to him, the legal systems in Europe have proven inadequate in addressing this issue due to the liberal political culture prevalent in most states.

Rebel 

Swedish political parties have boycotted the EPC. The Left Party (Vänsterpartiet) referred to the Palestinian division and concerns about personal relations as factors that hindered its participation. Yet, the party stressed its commitment to a free Palestine, an end to the occupation, and peace negotiations.

Jamal El-Haj, a Swedish MP for the Social Democratic Party, known for his criticism of Hamas, did attend the EPC, contrary to his party’s recommendations. His presence led the party to “temporarily freeze his duties” in the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee.

El-Haj has described Israel as an “apartheid state.” He participated in the EPC on the condition that a representative from the Palestinian embassy in Stockholm was present and that none of the participants would have links to anti-Semitism.

Palestine and Sweden

Sweden recognized the Palestinian State in October 2014. Acting as the unofficial government for the Palestinian people, the PLO has had an observer status at the UN since 1974.

Sweden has historically played an important role in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Sweden voted in favor of the UN Partition Plan for Palestine in 1947. Swedish mediator Folke Bernadotte put forward a peace plan for the conflict before his assassination in September 1948 by Zionist terrorists who accused him of favoring the Arabs. 

In December 1988, Sweden mediated for the USA to lift the ban on direct talks with the PLO. According to Sweden’s Central Bureau of Statistics some 7,300 Palestinian-born people live in Sweden in 2017. However, the actual number is arguably higher than that.

By the end of 2021, the number of Palestinians around the world reached about 14 million: 5.3 million of whom live in Palestine (3.2 million in the West Bank and 2.1 million in the Gaza Strip), 1.7 million in the lands of 1948, and some 7 million in the diaspora, of whom some 6.3 million in Arab countries.