General secretary of the Arab Labour Group Omar Mofeed — Allegedly the son of Hamas official Dr. Mufid Al-Mokhalalati — was a lead drafter of a Labour conference motion on Israel.
A Hamas official’s son — who has himself expressed support for Hamas in the past — has been revealed to be one of the lead drafters of the UK Labour Party Conference motion calling for sanctions against Israel and declaring it apartheid, according to an investigation by the NGO Israel Advocacy Movement (IAM).
In an interview with Al-Jazeera, general secretary of the Arab Labour Group Omar Mofeed — Allegedly the son of Hamas official Dr. Mufid Al-Mokhalalati — was acknowledged as a drafter of a Labour conference motion, along with another group, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, of which he is also a director.
“Omar, I believe you were involved in the drafting of this motion?” An Al-Jazeera interviewer asked Mofeed.
“The group [sic] called for this motion was the Young Labour, then it was supported by 12 trade union[s], then Palestine Solidarity Campaign have helped in writing it and Arab Labour Group have helped as well,” said Mofeed.
🚨BREAKING🚨
Historic motion on Palestine passes at Labour Party Conference 2021 acknowledging that Israel is practicing apartheid and calling for strong sanctions #Lab21 #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/nmsvZDxIYR
— PSC (@PSCupdates) September 27, 2021
According to a video released by IAM, Omar Mofeed is the son of Dr Mufid Al-Mukhalalati, who was the health minister in Hamas’s Gazan government. Al-Mukhalalati died in 2014.
The Jewish Chronicle contacted Mofeed, who reportedly initially denied that his father was a Hamas member.
“My father died in 2014 when I was still young,” Mofeed told the Chronicle. “He was a surgeon who did remarkable work, for which he is widely recognised in Palestine, building health services for the people of Gaza. I am deeply proud of the work that he did in caring for the health of others and his legacy is extremely important to me.”
The video also showcased social media posts by Mofeed in which he expressed support for Hamas, individual terrorists, and terrorist activity. Mofeed has since closed his Twitter and Facebook accounts.
In one 2013 Facebook post, Mofeed called to kidnap Israeli soldiers to ransom them for imprisoned Palestinian combatants. In 2015 he celebrated the anniversary of the death of Hamas chief bomb-maker, Yahya Ayyash.
“When it comes to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, mainstream political parties like Labour are expected to act impartially,” Joseph Cohen of the Israel Advocacy Movement told The Jerusalem Post. “This is why we were shocked when an al-Jazeera interview suggested Omar helped draft a Labour motion highly critical of Israel.
“We were shocked because anyone visiting his Facebook would have seen numerous concerning posts. There were also a number of posts about his father. It’s staggering that in the wake of the antisemitism scandal that engulfed the Labour Party, someone with Omar’s public history would not just be active in Labour but contributing to motions about Israel.”
The UK Labour party passed the motion declaring on Israel on September 28 during their annual party conference.
The motion condemned “the ongoing Nakba in Palestine, Israel’s militarised violence attacking the Al Aqsa mosque, the forced displacements from Sheikh Jarrah and the deadly assault on Gaza.”
It noted the “unequivocal 2021 reports by B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch that conclude unequivocally that Israel is practising the crime of apartheid as defined by the UN,” and called for “stopping any arms trade used to violate Palestinian human rights and trade with illegal Israeli settlements.”
However, according to the Financial Times, Labour leadership indicated that the motion would not become official party policy: “Labour’s policy is for a peaceful, negotiated two-state solution that ensures a sovereign Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel,” the party said in a statement.
One of the major criticisms of Jeremy Corbyn, UK Labour party’s previous leader, was his interactions and engagement with members of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
IAM is a British based organization that seeks “to establish a ‘mass movement’ of Israeli advocates through training and mobilising a network of passionate supporters of Israel.”
As reported by The Jerusalem Post