The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Ohio branch moderated an online event last week featuring a Hamas official designated as a terrorist by the Treasury Department, as well as other Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members.

The Beirut-based think tank Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations hosted an event in Arabic last week titled “Palestinians Abroad and Regional International Strategic Transformations in Light of Operation Al-Aksa Flood,” using Hamas’ name for its Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.

Among the speakers at the web conference was Majed al-Zeer, who was designated by the Treasury Department in October 2024 as “the senior Hamas representative in Germany, who is also one of the senior Hamas members in Europe and has played a central role in the terrorist group’s European fundraising.” 

Al-Zeer said that “the resistance” is key to maintaining the momentum of a “strategic shift” in how Europe and the world views the Palestinian issue.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad financier Sami al-Arian, a former University of South Florida computer science professor who was deported from the U.S. in 2015 due to his ties to the terrorist group, said on the same panel as Al-Zeer that “the overall Palestinian situation is much better strategically than it was before the flood [Oct. 7].”

CAIR-Ohio Director Khalid Turaani moderated one panel with commentary provided by Ziad el-Aloul, who is active in several Hamas-affiliated organizations in Europe, including the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad, which was designated a terrorist group by Israel in 2021 for its work on behalf of Hamas. More recently, PCPA was found to be involved in facilitating the Global Sumud Flotilla that attempted to sail to Gaza with climate activist Greta Thunberg on board.

Another speaker in the Turaani-led panel expressed hope that the Turkish army would deploy in Gaza and fight the IDF.

The CAIR-Ohio director’s participation in a conference with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures came two months after Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) called for an IRS investigation into the organization and the revocation of its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, citing alleged “ties to terrorist organizations like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.”

CAIR did not respond to a request for comment. 

The editor-in-chief of Qatar’s pro-government newspaper Al Sharq called on Hamas “heroes” to kidnap more IDF soldiers in a since-deleted tweet. 

“If success is not achieved this time in capturing Zionist soldiers at the hands of the heroes of #AlQassamBrigades, then the second, third, and fourth attempts will succeed, God willing, by adding new rats to the tally held by the heroes of the Brigades,” Qatari journalist Jabar Al-Harmi wrote in Arabic last week, adding that the “heroes” of Al-Qasam “sent a number of Zionist soldiers to hell” by storming an IDF military site in southern Gaza. Those that weren’t killed were “sent to worldly torment with permanent disabilities and impairments, and others to mental and psychological institutions.” 

Al-Harmi continued, “Blessed be the hands of the heroes. And may the hands of the vile criminal outcasts be paralyzed.” 

Al Sharq, which is published in Doha by a privately held media company founded and owned by Sheikh Khalid bin Thani Al Thani, a member of the Qatari ruling family, is one of the four leading private daily Arabic newspapers in Qatar, all of which have a pro-government bent. 

Ghaith Al-Omari, a senior fellow in The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Irwin Levy Family Program in the U.S.-Israel Strategic Relationship, told Jewish Insider that the tweet is “not surprising” and comes amid widespread praise for Hamas in Qatari media. 

“The Qatari media landscape is rife with statements, selective reporting and editorials that support Hamas,” said Al-Omari, former executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine. “Under the guise of supporting the Palestinian people, many Qatari media outlets have been a key vehicle for amplifying Hamas propaganda.”