Prominent Palestinian activist slams US sanctions as ‘madness’
Al Jazeera
Majed al-Zeer says the US claim that he is a Hamas representative in Europe is an attempt to discourage his activism.
A prominent Europe-based Palestinian activist has slammed the United States for issuing sanctions against him, dismissing the measure as an attempt to discourage him “from continuing my work for Palestine and advocating for my people’s rights”.
Majed al-Zeer, a dual British and Jordanian national, also rejected the accusations cited in the sanctions as “absolutely false”.
“It is madness,” he told Al Jazeera on Thursday. “It affects my life socially, my career, for the sake of accusation. There is no proof whatsoever.”
Al-Zeer explained that he learned about the sanctions earlier this week through media reports. On Monday, the US Department of the Treasury identified al-Zeer as one of three individuals sanctioned for alleged ties to the Palestinian group Hamas, which it called a “terrorist” organisation.
The Treasury accused al-Zeer, who lives in the UK and Germany, of being a “senior Hamas representative” who played “a central role in the terrorist group’s European fundraising”.
