European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG)

The Euro­pean Cam­paign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG) was a Brus­sels-based non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tion found­ed in late 2007 with the stat­ed mis­sion of mobi­liz­ing Euro­pean polit­i­cal and pub­lic sup­port to lift the Israeli block­ade on the Gaza Strip. Led by its chair­man, Dr. Arafat Shoukri, the group oper­at­ed as a coali­tion of over 30 NGOs. It served as a found­ing mem­ber of the Free­dom Flotil­la Coali­tion, play­ing a cen­tral role in orga­niz­ing high-pro­file direct actions, includ­ing the 2010 Free­dom Flotil­la to breach the naval block­ade. The orga­ni­za­tion faced sig­nif­i­cant scruti­ny from intel­li­gence bod­ies; the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Dai­ly Watch report­ed that the ECESG shared the same tele­phone num­bers and office address as the Pales­tin­ian Return Cen­tre (PRC) in the UK, assert­ing this as evi­dence of its inte­gra­tion into the Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood’s net­work and its func­tion as a Hamas front. Fol­low­ing des­ig­na­tions by Israel as an illic­it asso­ci­a­tion and the clo­sure of affil­i­at­ed groups, the ECESG report­ed­ly became inac­tive, with cur­rent part­ner orga­ni­za­tions list­ing it as “inef­fec­tive”.

References:

• Cam­paign: End the siege on Gaza (Elec­tron­ic Intifada)
• Free­dom Flotil­la Coali­tion — Mem­ber Organizations
• Dossier: Free­dom Flotil­la for Gaza (France-Pales­tine)
• Evi­dence on Polit­i­cal Islam: Euro­pean Cam­paign to End the Siege on Gaza (UK Parliament/GMBDW)
• Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Like­ly Behind Euro­pean Cam­paign To Lift Gaza Block­ade (Glob­al Mus­lim Broth­er­hood Dai­ly Watch)
• Time to expose Hamas’ “civil­ian” net­work in Europe (The Jerusalem Post)
• Inter­na­tion­al Com­mit­tee for Break­ing the Siege of Gaza — About (list­ing ECESG as ineffective)