Pro-Hamas Activist Birawi Named As Key “Madleen” Organizer

British pro-Hamas activist Zaher Birawi was named in British media as a key orga­niz­er of the 2025 Gaza Free­dom Flotil­la. On 9 June 2025, The Tele­graph report­ed that Zaher Birawi, who was described in Par­lia­ment as a per­son with links to Hamas, had called him­self a “found­ing mem­ber” of the Free­dom Flotil­la Inter­na­tion­al Coali­tion, which arranged the voy­age by the aid boat “Madleen.” The arti­cle begins:

Zaher Birawi, a promi­nent Hamas oper­a­tive, has been named as the key orga­niz­er behind the “Madleen” Gaza flotil­la, accord­ing to new reports. The flotil­la, which has attract­ed inter­na­tion­al atten­tion, is seen as a sym­bol of sol­i­dar­i­ty with Gaza, but also draws crit­i­cism for its links to con­tro­ver­sial fig­ures. Biraw­i’s involve­ment has sparked debate over the polit­i­cal aims and fund­ing of the ini­tia­tive. Crit­ics argue that the project may be used for pro­pa­gan­da pur­pos­es, while sup­port­ers claim it is a human­i­tar­i­an mis­sion. The Telegraph’s inves­ti­ga­tion high­lights Biraw­i’s long-stand­ing asso­ci­a­tion with Hamas and his role in pre­vi­ous flotil­la efforts. The report also notes that the project has received back­ing from high-pro­file activists, includ­ing Gre­ta Thunberg.

Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/09/zaher-birawi-hamas-operative-greta-thunbergs-gaza-flotilla/

Key Points

• Zaher Birawi has been named the main orga­niz­er of the “Madleen” Gaza flotil­la in recent reports.

• The flotil­la is intend­ed to show sol­i­dar­i­ty with Gaza but is con­tro­ver­sial due to Birawi’s Hamas links.

• Crit­ics argue the project may serve as pro­pa­gan­da, while sup­port­ers view it as humanitarian.

• High-pro­file activists, includ­ing Gre­ta Thun­berg, have tak­en part in the initiative.

Birawi’s Pro-Hamas Activism: Networks, Influence, and Political Reach

Zaher Birawi’s pro-Hamas activism in the UK is built on exten­sive net­works that bridge British polit­i­cal fig­ures, stu­dent lead­ers, and advo­ca­cy groups with broad­er Islamist caus­es, as show­cased by events such as the Mus­lim Coun­cil of Britain Anniver­sary Din­ner, which brought togeth­er the Lon­don may­or and Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood lead­ers. The Pales­tin­ian Forum in Britain, close­ly linked to Birawi, has hon­ored a for­mer UK Labour Par­ty leader at its PalFes­ti­val, fur­ther embed­ding pro-Hamas sen­ti­ment into main­stream British politics.

UK stu­dent activism is also influ­enced by these net­works, with a sus­pend­ed UK Stu­dent Union pres­i­dent receiv­ing an award from a Hamas sup­port group and ongo­ing scruti­ny of anti-Semi­tism with­in stu­dent orga­ni­za­tions. The UK Labour Mus­lim Network’s “Vir­tu­al Iftar” event, fea­tur­ing pro-Hamas and Mus­lim Broth­er­hood lead­ers, demon­strates the oper­a­tional reach of these net­works into com­mu­ni­ty spheres and left-wing pol­i­tics. Glob­al­ly, these efforts are mir­rored by attempts to shift polit­i­cal nar­ra­tives from Ukraine to Pales­tine sol­i­dar­i­ty, sup­port­ed by sym­pa­thet­ic MPs and activists par­tic­i­pat­ing in events like the “Israeli Apartheid” round­table.

Exter­nal media reports have iden­ti­fied the UK as a source of sig­nif­i­cant pri­vate dona­tions to Hamas-linked orga­ni­za­tions, with funds often chan­neled through enti­ties reg­is­tered as human­i­tar­i­an or advo­ca­cy groups rather than char­i­ties. The UK gov­ern­ment pre­vi­ous­ly fund­ed aid pro­grams in Gaza involv­ing the Hamas-con­trolled Min­istry of Social Devel­op­ment, rais­ing con­cerns about risk and diver­sion despite offi­cial oversight.

Exter­nal References:

• UK poured mil­lions into aid pro­gram linked to Hamas-con­trolled group
• UK’s ban on Hamas said to be sig­nif­i­cant blow to fund­ing for ter­ror group
• Hamas fugi­tive spouts hate on TV sta­tion based in London

Dis­claimer:
The Glob­al Influ­ence Oper­a­tions Report (GIOR) employs AI through­out the post­ing process, includ­ing gen­er­at­ing sum­maries of news items, the intro­duc­tion, key points, and often the “con­text” sec­tion. We rec­om­mend ver­i­fy­ing all infor­ma­tion before use. Addi­tion­al­ly, images are AI-gen­er­at­ed and intend­ed sole­ly for illus­tra­tive pur­pos­es. While they rep­re­sent the events or indi­vid­u­als dis­cussed, they should not be inter­pret­ed as real-world photography.