Hannoun arrest order shows Israeli logic has entered the Italian justice system |
Mohammad Hannoun, the leader of the Association of Palestinians in Italy – 64 years old, a resident of Genoa since 1983 – was arrested only on Saturday, after he had been known to authorities since at least 1991.
The first DIGOS (Special Operations Division) report mentioning his contacts with the then-nascent Hamas dates back 35 years. The issue has already been examined twice by the court of Genoa (in 2006 and 2010); in both cases, the investigations against Hannoun – which, like this latest one, started from the assumption that collecting donations in solidarity is actually a front for subsidizing armed struggle – ended with no charges of any kind: the first one after the ruling of a judge and the second at the request of the prosecutor’s office itself, which deemed that the evidence did not justify going to trial.
Now, however, things have changed: Hannoun is no longer being accused of merely supporting his contacts – some of whom may be dangerous, but which have certainly been known for decades – but of nothing less than being the “head of the Italian cell” of Hamas.
The fact is that since the attacks of October 7, 2023, the perception of many NGOs operating in the Gaza Strip has changed. Since that date, Israeli authorities have blacklisted as terrorist organizations many entities that have worked in the area for decades. This includes those that have been targeted by the investigation begun at the end of 2023 at the behest of the National Anti-Mafia Directorate (DNA) and which culminated on Saturday........