Zaher Birawi

Zaher Birawi is a Pales­tin­ian-British activist, media fig­ure, and long­time polit­i­cal orga­niz­er with long­stand­ing ties to Hamas and pro-Pales­tin­ian move­ments across Europe. He is the chair­man of the EuroPal Forum, a UK-based orga­ni­za­tion des­ig­nat­ed by Israel in 2021 as a ter­ror-affil­i­at­ed enti­ty, and has been described by Israeli author­i­ties and UK par­lia­men­tar­i­ans as a Hamas oper­a­tive. Birawi gained fur­ther atten­tion in 2025 as a key orga­niz­er behind the Gaza-bound aid boat Madleen, which car­ried Gre­ta Thun­berg and oth­er pro-Pales­tin­ian activists. The mis­sion was part of the Free­dom Flotil­la Inter­na­tion­al Coali­tion, where Birawi claimed to be a found­ing mem­ber. He livestreamed the boat’s launch from Sici­ly and cel­e­brat­ed it as an act of resis­tance against the Israeli block­ade of Gaza. Birawi has also appeared in a 2012 pho­to with for­mer Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and has host­ed events explic­it­ly focused on “Under­stand­ing Hamas.” In Octo­ber 2023, Labour MP Chris­t­ian Wake­ford named Birawi under par­lia­men­tary priv­i­lege as a Hamas oper­a­tive liv­ing in Lon­don, not­ing his role as a trustee of the UK char­i­ty Edu­ca­tion Aid for Pales­tini­ans. Birawi has denied all ter­ror affil­i­a­tions and suc­cess­ful­ly sued a finan­cial data­base for what he claimed was an unfound­ed ter­ror­ism list­ing, argu­ing there has nev­er been any con­vic­tion against him in any juris­dic­tion. Despite this, his promi­nent role in orga­niz­ing protests, pro­mot­ing flotil­la actions, and fram­ing Israeli poli­cies as geno­ci­dal con­tin­ues to place him at the cen­ter of con­tro­ver­sy over Hamas-linked influ­ence oper­a­tions in the UK.

Ref­er­ences:

• Lon­don-based ‘Hamas oper­a­tive’ behind Gre­ta Thunberg’s Gaza flotil­la – Tele­graph

• Euro­pean Hamas oper­a­tive behind Gaza flotil­la – i24News

• Lon­don-based Hamas oper­a­tive linked with flotil­la – Jerusalem Post

• Pro-Hamas activist Birawi named as key “Madleen” orga­niz­er – Glob­al Influ­ence Ops

• UK-based Hamas activist lead­ing Euro­pean influ­ence ops – Glob­al Influ­ence Ops (GIOR)

• Zaher Birawi – Wikipedia (French)

• UK secu­ri­ty brief­ing iden­ti­fy­ing PRC as Hamas-linked – We Believe in Israel