HonestReporting: Media Overlook Terror Supporters Behind the Hind Rajab Foundation
As the war between Israel and Hamas continues in Gaza, those seeking to harm the Jewish state on the international stage have adopted a new tactic: Opening criminal cases against individual Israeli soldiers in foreign countries.
In recent months, several IDF soldiers and reservists visiting foreign countries have been accused of war crimes, with some forced to flee back to Israel to avoid possible detainment. While some of these Israeli servicemen have been accused based on videos and photographs on the internet, others have been pursued solely by virtue of their recent military service in Gaza or the West Bank.
And where there has been genuine suspicion of wrongdoing on the part of Israeli soldiers, the IDF’s Military Advocate General’s Corps has launched examinations and investigations of alleged misconduct in the context of operational activity, in accordance with its obligations under Israeli and international law.
One of the main organizations spearheading the “lawfare” campaign of intimidation against IDF soldiers is the Hind Rajab Foundation.
Based in Belgium, the Foundation is named for a young Gazan girl who was killed during the current war, allegedly at the hands of the Israeli military.
As the campaign against Israeli soldiers around the world has gained steam, several media outlets have covered this story and referred to the Foundation as a “non-profit group” (The New York Times), a “pro-Palestinian NGO” (CNN), and an “activist group” (The Guardian).
However, behind these innocuous descriptions lies a much more disturbing truth that the media have failed to disclose to their readers: The Hind Rajab Foundation is run by people who support terrorism, espouse antisemitism, and even have ties to Hezbollah.
Dyab Abu Jahjah: From Hezbollah to the Hind Rajab Foundation
According to NGO Monitor, Dyab Abou Jahjah, the chair of the Hind Rajab Foundation, was a member of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror organization when he lived in Lebanon and continued to serve the terror group’s interests after he moved to Belgium.
Even though Abou Jahjah lied to Belgian authorities that he had had a falling out with Hezbollah leaders in order to gain political asylum, he looked back fondly on his Hezbollah training in a 2003 New York Times article, organized visits of Hezbollah politicians to European countries in 2009, and eulogized Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah in 2024.
Aside from his affiliation with an internationally recognized terror group, Abou Jahjah also has a long history of publicly supporting terrorism in Israel and around the world.
Abou Jahjah referred to the September 11 attacks as “sweet revenge,” celebrated a 2017 terror attack that killed four Israelis (for which he was later fired from his role as a columnist for a Belgian newspaper), justified the October 7 massacre in southern Israel, and referred to Hamas mastermind Yahya Sinwar as an example of a “resistance leader” who “showed the way” to millions of followers.
Aside from his support for terrorism, Abou Jahjah also referred to then-Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s stated goal of wiping Israel off the map as “the only possible moral [position]” and once remarked that, for Israeli Jews, the choice is between “the suitcase and the coffin.”
Dyab Abou Jahjah’s extremist views go beyond terrorism and opposing Israel, extending to homophobia (referring to gay people as “Aids spreading f****ts”) and antisemitism.
As founder of the Arab European League in 2001, Abou Jahjah was responsible for several riots in Antwerp (one of which included the burning of the effigy of an ultra-Orthodox Jew) and even got his organization fined in 2006 for publishing a Holocaust denial cartoon on its website.
For his extremist views, Abou Jahjah was even banned from entering the United Kingdom.
Karim Hassoun: Anti-Israel, Pro-Terrorism
Like Dyab Abou Jahjah, Karim Hassoun, the Hind Rajab Foundation’s secretary, has a history of vocally supporting terrorism.
In 2009, both men supported a campaign to delist Hamas and other Palestinian “liberation organizations” from the European Union’s list of banned terror groups.
In the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, Hassoun justified it as Palestinians “returning home and reclaiming their properties” and later facetiously condemned Hamas for kidnapping 200 people and “not having taken 500 or 1000 hostages.”
Hassoun also derided the Islamic Fatwa Council for its condemnation of Hamas’ human rights violations.
In October 2024, Hassoun brought a coffin symbolizing a dead Hezbollah terrorist to a Holocaust memorial at the site of a Nazi transit camp.
Karim Hassoun has also been photographed in a Hezbollah hat and reportedly had photos of Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah and notorious terrorist Samir Kuntar on his Facebook page.
When an organization’s leadership is so badly tainted by terror links, extremism, and violence, isn’t it incumbent on the media to provide their audience with all the relevant facts and not whitewash this group as merely a pro-Palestinian NGO?
Liked this article? Follow HonestReporting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to see even more posts and videos debunking news bias and smears, as well as other content explaining what’s really going on in Israel and the region. Get updates direct to your phone. Join our WhatsApp and Telegram channels!
Photo Credit: Oren Cohen via Flash90
