[Jpost] BEHIND THE LINES: What is a charity based in Israel, apparently devoted to the Palestinian cause, doing building mosques in northern Syria? Turkish ethnic cleansing.
| The Living with Dignity Association, based in Tira, sounds like a project of the so-called Islamic Movement, as the Muslim Brotherhood in Israel calls itself. The Southern Branch is the political wing, based near Tel Aviv, which nowadays manifests as the Ra’am Party in Naftali Bennett’s governing coalition. The Northern Branch is the militant wing, based in Umm al Fahm in the Galilee, which coordinates with Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and Erdogan’s Turkey. About 10% of Israel’s Arabs are connected to the Islamic Movement, if only through its charities. |
On June 21, 2021, a newly built mosque was inaugurated in the village of Sheikh Khurez, in northwest Syria, close to the Turkish border.
Sheikh Khurez is located in the part of Syria under the nominal administration of the opposition-linked Syrian Interim Government. In practice, since the Turkish Armed Forces’ Operation Olive Branch of 2018 destroyed the Kurdish Afrin canton, the area has been under the de facto rule of Ankara and its associated militias. The latter are organized in the framework of the Turkish-trained and financed Syrian National Army. |