For over a decade, Hamas has been working through the "Jordanian Engineers Union" to renovate houses in the Old City, with the aim of strengthening the Islamic presence in the Old City, preventing the sale of houses to Jews, and altogether strengthening its power and status among the Arab population, which is regarded as the line of defense for the "Al Aqsa Mosque".
The Israeli authorities are not preventing the project, which Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh explained its importance and called for donations to participate in it. A senior member of the Union of Engineers even called the project "Jihad for Jerusalem".
Jewish efforts to redeem houses in the Old City of Jerusalem are irritating the various Arab entities. These are struggling in every way to prevent selling houses to Jews, including a death sentence for the sellers.
One of the projects behind which senior Hamas officials stand is the renovation of the homes of the Arab residents in the Old City.
According to Arab publications, from 2009 till the last fund-raising project in 2021, the "Jordanian Engineers Union" raised over 7 million dinars (about NIS 30 million) that were used to renovate houses.
The houses underwent a comprehensive renovation and were turned from ruins, some of which were almost uninhabitable, into luxurious homes.
According to the union's publications, the funds were used to renovate 175 projects and hundreds of housing units used now to house over two thousand people.
Renovating the houses has a double effect. First, enhancing the hold of Muslim families in the Old City and preventing Jews from buying houses. This method is called by Hamas "Rabat and Sumud" - a firm grip that serves as a basis for war. Secondly, by this "Da'wah" activity Hamas gains a foothold and a way of rewarding and helping its people in Jerusalem as well as creating a bond of obligation with other families and thus strengthening its control in the Old City - a particularly strategic area.
The funds are raised by a fund-raising project called "Let's Light the Lanterns of Resilience (Sumud)", which is led by a sub-committee in the Jordanian Engineers Union called "Engineers for Palestine and Jerusalem".
The "Jordanian Engineers Union" is on paper a professional body that unites engineers, but in reality, it has been used for many years as an infrastructure for Hamas activities in Jordan. For over 20 years, Hamas members dominated the union without question, and even today they hold many positions of power and in particular in the committee acting on behalf of the union called "Engineers for Palestine and Al-Quds".
The involvement of Ismail Haniyeh, one of the leaders of Hamas, in the campaign, is further proof of the emphasis the terrorist organization puts on the project.
The last fundraising project which took place in 2021, was dignified by the head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, presence himself. The campaign was published on broadcasts day on the Jordanian "Hosna" radio.
Watch the Hamas leader's call to enlist in the campaign:
In an interview, the Hamas leader detailed the importance of the contribution to the renovation of the houses when he explained that Zionist billionaires are contributing to the redemption of houses in Jerusalem and that the Arab people must mobilize to strengthen their people in the city.
"We deserve to flow these funds, and to help our people in Al-Quds. We are the Palestinian people, and we have the duty of rising and standing firm. We must not recognize this entity (the Zionist entity. A nickname for the State of Israel), and we must not give up on the land of Palestine. We must stand by our Palestinian brothers ", said Haniyeh.
Those involved in raising funds for the project are members of Hamas and The Northern Faction from East Jerusalem. In publications about the various fund-raising events and the activities of the Engineers' Union, the activities of Hamas from East Jerusalem (Morbitat) are repeatedly shown, Hindi Khilwani, who spent the last few days in detention, and Khadija Havis - who stand out at the fund-raising evenings held in Hamas student rooms at Jordan universities. The "Engineers' Union" also published calls from The Northern Faction officials, Raad Salah and Kamal Khatib, to contribute to the project.
As part of the 9th fund-raising project held in November 2021, in which over 600,000 dinars, about 2.5 million NIS, were collected, the chairman of the Union of Engineers, Ahmed Samira Alzoevi, said that the fund-raising is about the east of the city, but the goal is "Arab Palestine from the sea to the river, with Jerusalem as its capital without Difference between East and West". Another senior official who heads the Union of Electrical Engineers stated that the campaign is part of the Jihad for Jerusalem."
The connection between Sabri, the mufti who supported Hamas' suicide attacks, and the engineers' union continues recently as well.
Last August, right after his ban on leaving the country expired, the inciting Mufti Ekhrama Sabri went to visit Jordan where he was meeting with representatives of the Bar Association, headed by a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and representatives of the Engineers Union to strengthen cooperation in the fight against the Jews of Jerusalem and strengthen the power base of Hamas and its partners in Jerusalem.
It is not just Jihad through construction.
Just last week, the "Jordanian Engineers Union" published a statement condemning "the Zionist occupation's invasion of Jenin camp."
The union called people to "unite and stand together against the brutal occupation" and announced that it supports the right of the Palestinian people and the terrorist organizations ("the resistance factions") to react to the occupation’s crimes "by all the possible means", and also called to act "to provide support and assistance to the Palestinian people to stand against the barbaric Zionist occupation.".
Over the years, the Union of Engineers led an activity of identification with terrorists, supporting prisoners' strikes, resisting normalization in peace agreements, and economic and security cooperation with Israel. In a statement the union published last summer during Operation Dawn in Gaza, it was written that the fight against the Zionist enemy is an existential fight without borders. In 2019, the organization organized a "day of stepping on the Zionist flag" at the union complex.
To Hamas’s activity in Jordan through the Engineers Union has many years of history.
For example, during the Intifada years, Ebrahim Rocha, who was a member of the political bureau of Hamas and a senior member of the Engineers' Union, was expelled from Jordan. Rocha was returned after an uproar took place in Jordan. For his funeral, in 2021, Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashal received special permission to come to Jordan.
Later on, the involvement of the "Engineers Union" leaders in activities related to Hamas stood out. Val Sakaka served as the Union chairman, served as the head of the International Arab Organization for the Reconstruction of Gaza as well as participated in the flotilla to Gaza. Some years later, several of the organization's senior officials were arrested in Jordan, accused of terrorist activities on behalf of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and according to Jordan, participated in military training in preparation for activities in Jordan and Judea and Samaria.
At a conference organized by the "Engineers' Union" in 2015 under the title "Al Aqsa Rabat and Sumud", in participation of the inciting Mufti Ekhrama Sabri, the Jordanian government banned the entry of Abd Bkhiratt - an Imam from Zur Bahar who was convicted in Israel for inciting terrorism.
Despite all this, the Israeli authorities are not acting against the Jordanian engineer's union, which by all accounts is supposed to become illegal due to it being a forbidden association of Hamas.
The extensive renovation project also does not receive a backlash from the Israeli authorities, who even grant it various approvals when necessary.
Security officials explained to 'Hakol Hayehudi' that the Israeli authorities know that the Jordanian Engineers Union is a Hamas organization, but in order to avoid a confrontation with Jordan, the organization still is not declared illegal.
The activity of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan is officially limited, but in reality, they operate through the opposition party "Islamic Action Front", and professional unions in which Hamas members have long-standing control - such as the Engineers Union and the Lawyers Union.
It is evident that recently the organization has been gaining increasing support even among members of the Jordanian parliament, and that a call to renew official relations between Jordan and Hamas has repeatedly been heard from the Jordanian House of Representatives, along with serious incitement against Israel.
In emphasis of the last few weeks, we were notified of increasing incitement, among others by the Jordanian parliament member, Yanel Frihat, who called the Jews "monkeys’ and pigs’ descendants" in a debate in the parliament and called for war on Israel.
Frihat is behind the journey of Trad Al Faiz, an extremist Jordanian official, who, as we found and published, made a journey in Israel, in particular in Hebron and the Negev, all along severely inciting against Israel.
For their part, Hamas embraces, some would say a bear hug, the Jordanian government and repeatedly reiterates its support for the Jordanian kingdom to manage what is happening on the Temple Mount.
In the same interview of raising funds for the Jerusalem house renovation project, Ismail Haniyeh emphasized the importance of the Jordanian status on the Temple Mount. This is a situation that Hamas takes advantage of in light of the weakness of the Jordanian regime, to operate relatively freely through Jordanian institutions such as the Waqf, charitable organizations, and professional unions.
Haniyeh's words join several calls published by senior Hamas officials in which they announced their support for the so-called "Hashamite guardianship" of Al-Aqsa Mosque.
For example, the statement of the member of the Political Bureau Izzat Arishek from last May, and the statement that came out very recently on behalf of the "Al-Quds International Union" close to Hamas.
In the meantime, in Israel, an official reaction against Jordan has not been registered, and this is because of the policy for preserving Jordanian rule on the Temple Mount and strengthening the country, which has recently suffered domestic riots from within.
Thus Israel is losing more and more strategic assets and losing control over the Temple Mount and East Jerusalem.
