Today’s conviction of a tax-exempt Muslim non-profit group created in part, according to prosecutors, to raise money to support HAMAS after it became a U.S.-designated terrorist group, and the conviction of five (5) of the group’s leaders is a big win for U.S. prosecutors.

Read the indictment below:


The Holy Land Foundation’s terror indictment for funding HAMAS’ maintained that:

• “[T]he HLF provided significant financial resources to HAMAS leaders and key strategists”
• [T]he HLF sent approximately $100,000 to HAMAS’ future Political Bureau Chief Mousa Abu Marzook and his associates.
• “[F]rom 1988 through 1989, the HLF wire transferred approximately $670,000 to an account held by the Islamic Center of Gaza…established by Hamas spiritual leader and founder Shek Ahmed Yassin, and was used by him to conduct and coordinate HAMAS activities”
• The HLF funded children and families of HAMAS suicide bombers and relatives jailed on terror-related charges to help “HAMAS’ efforts to win the hearts and minds of” Palestinians.”

According to the Dallas Morning News, a number of HLF defendants have family who are Hamas leaders:

• Defendant Mufid Abdulqader is the brother of Hamas’ leader Khalid Meshal a/k/a Khaled Meshaal
• Defendant Mohammad el-Mezain, an HLF co-founder, is a cousin of Mousa Abu Marzook, Mishal’s deputy, and married the cousin of Ghassan Eslashi, former HLF board chairman reportedly living in Syria with other Hamas figureheads

A federal jury in Dallas, Texas convicted the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), a Muslim group with tax-exempt status, and five (5) of its leaders today for violating U.S. federal law by raising money to finance Hamas terrorist activities against Israelis and Americans abroad.


The Dallas Morning News reported that jury convicted them of at least “three dozen counts related to the illegal funneling of at least $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.”

U.S. federal prosecutors in Dallas, Texas began their closing arguments in the criminal re-trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (a/k/a ‘HLF’) and individual defendants, accusing them of acting as illegal fundraisers for Hamas, and a conduit for paying families of Hamas terrorists money after terrorist suicide attacks committed by family members.


The first trial took place in 2007. It resulted in a mistrial in the criminal case against almost all the suspects, except for Mohammad el-Mezain who was acquitted on all charges except for one count of conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors spelled out their arguments for the current case in their trial brief, maintaining that they would show how:

“the defendants, through the HLF, were engaged in a conspiracy to support Hamas through their membership in the Palestine Committee, an organization created by the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood to assist Hamas, which itself is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Along with the HLF, whose function was to raise funds on behalf of Hamas, the Palestine Committee oversaw the Islamic Association for Palestine (‘IAP’), the United Association for Studies & Research (‘UASR’) and, later on, the Council on American Islamic Relations (‘CAIR’).”

In short, they hope to prove that a small number of Islamic organizations that purported to be charities with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status were acting as conduits for Hamas’ terrorist financing. The U.S. Attorney’s laid out detailed wire transfers by people acting on behalf of HLF that went to Hamas-run institutions in Gaza and the West Bank that, according to testimony, were actually conduits for a portion of Hamas’ outlawed terror financing efforts

The Dallas Morning News has ongoing coverage of the case. Last week the newspaper linked to Hamas posters introduced into evidence at trial that were printed following the terrorist group’s suicide bombers’ (whom Hamas actually calls ‘martyrs’) following their terrorist attacks, with corresponding translations.

What do you think the verdict will be in this case?

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