Hamas chief and right to buy council house.

Revealed: the Hamas chief who lives in a London council house
Fugitive who “ran the group’s terrorist operations in the West Bank” was given a British passport and has recently bought a home with £112,000 discount
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Muhammad Sawalha continued to work for Hamas after he obtained British citizenship, according to the US Department of Justice
Muhammad Sawalha continued to work for Hamas after he obtained British citizenship, according to the US Department of Justice
RICHARD KEITH WOLFF/GETTY IMAGES
Gabriel Pogrund and Anshel Pfeffer
Saturday October 21 2023, 6.00pm, The Sunday Times
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A Hamas fugitive who “ran the group’s terrorist operations in the West Bank” and served on its ruling body lives in London in a council property he recently bought with a £112,000 discount.

Muhammad Qassem Sawalha evaded Israel’s security services using a relative’s passport and fled to the UK in the 1990s, later obtaining British citizenship.

Upon arrival, Sawalha, 62, continued to work for Hamas, holding secret talks about “revitalising” terrorist acts in Israel and helping to launder money to support activities in Gaza and the West Bank, according to a US Department of Justice indictment in 2004.

• Who are Hamas and what do they want?

As recently as 2019, he took part in an official Hamas delegation to Moscow, where he met Vladimir Putin’s deputy foreign minister, and served on Hamas’s politburo between 2013 and 2017. The father of four was pictured with Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, in 2010 and 2012.

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In 2009, he signed a notorious declaration that praised Allah for having “routed the Zionist Jews”, called for weapons to be sent to Gaza, and demanded a “Third Jihadist Front” be opened in Palestine alongside Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sawalha is officially designated by Israel’s defence ministry as belonging to Hamas and will be arrested if he returns to the country.

• In the powder keg that is the West Bank, the fuse may have been lit

The UK proscribed Hamas’s military wing as a terrorist organisation in March 2001, but declined to do the same for its political wing, creating an ambiguity that may mean Sawalha has not committed an offence. He has never been charged with crimes in the UK. In November 2021, the government changed its position and classified Hamas as a terrorist organisation in its entirety, saying any distinction between its various branches was “artificial”.


Despite his activities, Sawalha was granted a British passport in the early Noughties. Home Office guidance states that anyone who “incites, justifies or glorifies” terrorist violence or “seeks to provoke others to terrorist acts” will ordinarily be denied citizenship.

In 2003, he became a council tenant at a two-storey property with a garden and a garage in Colindale in the north London borough of Barnet, and continues to live there with his wife, Sawsan, 56.

The local authority has the highest Jewish population of any in Britain. According to the Office for National Statistics, 56,616 Jews — roughly a fifth of the community’s UK population — live in the borough of Barnet. The address is located less than a 10-minute drive from two synagogues.

In June 2021, the couple used the Right to Buy scheme to purchase their home for £320,700. Barnet council granted the couple a £112,300 discount on its market value — £500 short of the maximum discount available during the financial year. They have no mortgage on the property.

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Under the Right to Buy scheme, council tenants are automatically entitled to a discount on a property’s market value. The average price of a property in the area is nearly £600,000 according to Land Registry data.

Barry Rawlings, the Labour head of Barnet council, said it had launched a review of Sawalha’s purchase of a council house
Barry Rawlings, the Labour head of Barnet council, said it had launched a review of Sawalha’s purchase of a council house
LUCY YOUNG FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
The council’s leader, Barry Rawlings, said he was “horrified to think [Sawalha] could be living in our midst” and said he had launched a review. He said: “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.

“This has emerged at a time when communities locally are in desperate need of reassurance following the escalating conflict in the Middle East, and we have a responsibility as the council to ensure we can give that reassurance.”

In 2020, Rawlings said that UK Lawyers for Israel, a campaign group, had told the council of Sawalha’s background and that, as soon as it was made aware, officials “reported it to the counterterrorism unit at the Met Police”. Officers of the National Terrorist Financing Investigation Unit assessed whether the tenancy agreement may have violated sanctions legislation.

However, a spokesman said “the evidential test was not met” and no further action was taken. The sale of the home the following year has not been investigated.

In 2008, the Barnet Borough Times reported that the local authority had the longest council waiting list in the UK. In 2012 it took the controversial step of suspending lifetime rental agreements for new council tenants to ease the shortage. Last year, the deputy council leader said: “Many of our residents are deeply affected by the acute housing shortage.”

Started by: gaffer
"In 2008, the Barnet Borough Times reported that the local authority had the longest council waiting list in the UK. In 2012 it took the controversial step of suspending lifetime rental agreements for new council tenants to ease the shortage. Last year, the deputy council leader said: “Many of our residents are deeply affected by the acute housing shortage.”"

Yet they can still find accomodation for illegal imigrants in 2023?

And it's not just those from the Middle East, Africa and Asia who might be terrorists or criminals, but also includes some from the Balkan countries, who thirty years or so ago, were killing each other in a eftnic cleansing war following the death of Marshall Tito and the break up of Yugoslavia

Now they all come here to be housed and given benefits while they commit crime, acts of terrorism etc.

Even allowed to protest and wave flags of their own countries!

SEND THEM BACK ,,,,,,,,,,TODAY IF POSS .
G.B.

sometimes you cannot make this sh@t up!!!