The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG)

The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG) is an anti-Israel, pro-Hamas umbrella organization which participated in the Mavi Marmara flotilla. The ECESG is currently involved in organizing an upgraded flotilla, and in other projects to further isolate Israel, part of the campaign to delegitimize it.

The Meir Amit
Intelligence and Terrorism
Information Center (ITIC)
October '10

Overview

1. The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG) is an anti-Israel, pro Hamas umbrella organization operating in Europe. It participated in the last flotilla (which ended with a violent confrontation aboard the Mavi Marmara) along with a coalition of four other anti-Israel organizations led by the Turkish IHH. Since then the ECESG and the other coalition members have been intensively promoting new programs with the objective of embarrassing Israel and deepening its isolation. The coalition projects include an upgraded flotilla which has been organizing for several months as Freedom Fleet 2 (its organizers hope to include more than 20 ships from various countries), and sending a plane to the Gaza Strip.

2. The ECESG was founded in 2007, the same year as Hamas' violent takeover of the Fatah and Palestinian Authority institutions in the Gaza Strip. Its declared objectives are "the complete lifting" of the so-called Israeli "siege" of the Gaza Strip and bringing humanitarian assistance to its residents. However, beyond that goal, which is supported by Western human rights organizations and activists, lie hidden its undeclared political objectives. They include strengthening the de facto Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip and making it difficult for Israel (and Egypt) to achieve effective oversight of arms smuggling and the infiltration of terrorist operatives into the Gaza Strip through the land crossings and by sea. While the ECESG advances its support for Hamas in the Gaza Strip, there is no mention on the organization's website or in statements made by its senior members of similar support for the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria (focusing on the Gaza Strip is characteristic of pro-Hamas organizations which do not publicly admit their intention to support it).

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