Hamas leaders receive an exemption from their golden exile in Qatar
Musa Abu Marzouk, a prominent Hamas leader, February 12, 2019. Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP
Decryption – Although their presence in the West raises concerns, the Qatari authorities are not embarrassed to justify their hospitality.
The meeting with Musa Abu Marzouk took place in a villa in Doha, the capital of Qatar, home of the main political leaders of the Hamas movement. For security reasons, a driver from this senior leader in the Islamic Movement came to pick us up from the hotel. It was the summer of 2019. The building was entered, without Hamas’ knowledge or label, after a brief security check. Pictures of fundamentalist leaders assassinated by Israel hung on the walls: Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a quadriplegic teacher and founder of Hamas, Abdel Aziz Al-Rantisi, Ismail Abu Shanab and many others.
Musa Abu Marzouk, with a round face and a large bald spot, had gained a few kilos since our last meeting in 1997. That was in Amman, Jordan, where this Palestinian from the Gaza Strip had just been expelled from the United States, having studied at Harvard. University of Colorado, one of the rare Palestinian Islamic executives with an American background. “Our welcome to Qatar is not unusual; king…
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