Supplementary memorandum from the Board
of Deputies of British Jews
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Board of Deputies of British Jews
and the Community Security Trust welcome the opportunity to make
this third submission to the Foreign Affairs Committee. We have
previously made submissions to the Committee's inquiry into Iran
(2003) as well as to this ongoing inquiry into the foreign policy
aspects of the war against terrorism (2002).
1.2 The Board is the representative body
and voice of the British Jewish Community. It was founded in 1760.
The Community Security Trust was established in 1994 to provide
security and defence services and advice for the community. It
works closely with the Board, and with the police.
1.3 This further submission provides us
with the opportunity to expand our comments on aspects of Middle
East terrorism and of terrorist threats to the United Kingdom.
1.4 Events in the Middle East and in the
war against terrorism are moving rapidly, and some of our comments
may be out of date by the time the members of the Committee read
them. We nevertheless feel that it is important to bring them
to the Committee's attention. They form part of the total picture
of the threat of international terrorism to British interests
and to Jewish communities, including that in Britain.
1.5 It is increasingly apparent that the
war against terrorism is indivisible and that it requires a long-term
and sustained commitment to defeat it across a broad front. This
applies not only to military action but also to the exchange of
information between countries on terrorist infrastructures and
their political and financial support mechanisms. Action by some
governments has led to a crippling of the powers of terrorist
groups in those countries. But terrorist groups are remarkably
resilient and have been able to transfer their fundraising and
support networks to other countries. It is therefore necessary
for countries to cooperate better with one another than they have,
and it is apparent that there are some European countries which
have yet to commit themselves fully to this task.
Terrorist groups which have, in effect, been
chased out of the USA and some European countries may be seeking
to establish themselves here in Britain. This is a matter of concern
to the Board of Deputies and to the Community Security Trust.
Such groups promote an uncompromising hostility to the State of
Israel and also to Jewish communities. These groups attack Jewish
communities not only in order to undermine support for Israel,
but also because they adhere to an anti-Semitic ideology.
2. The terrorist threat
2.1 In addition to its networked nature,
which we remarked upon in our earlier submission, there are two
other outstanding characteristics which apply to terrorism carried
out by Islamist groups and Middle East states.
First, terrorism is a strategic option used
both by state and sub-state groups. It should not be regarded
merely as a consequence of economic or political desperation.
While poverty may assist the recruitment process, modern terrorism,
with few exceptions, is a weapon in an armoury to be used when
political decisions so dictate.
Second, Islamist terrorism uses the cloak of
religion. In order to recruit adherents, it proclaims a religious
war between Islam and Christianity, Islam and Judaism or Islam
and the West. As a consequence of these appeals, Palestine, Kashmir,
and now Iraq, have all been declared wars in defence of Islam
and the Muslim heartland by Islamist terrorist leaders.
The overwhelming majority of Muslims reject
such appeals but the evidence shows that some Islamists heed them,
although their responses may vary. Our concern is that there will
be some who will be motivated to engage in terrorism as a consequence.
2.2 We need briefly to understand the wellsprings
of Islamist terrorism.
The lkhwan al-Islami (Muslim Brotherhood) founded
in 1929 by Hassan al-Banna was the first modern expression of
a Muslim political consciousness, and its contemporary followers
provide the primary vehicle for Islamist religious ideology. It
is from the Brotherhood that many, if not most, Islamist terrorist
groups are ideologically descended. In 1947 the Jama'at Islami,
founded in India by Abdul Ala Maududi, adopted a roughly similar
ideology. In the years after the Second World War the post-war
leader of the Brotherhood, Sayid Qutb, forged an alliance with,
and influenced, Maududi and the Jama'at Islami.
What is of particular concern for us now is
that Qutb imported into Islamist thinking a totalitarian outlook,
a disdain for the West and belief in conspiracy theories (he annotated
his best-selling commentaries on the Koran with The Protocols
of the Elders of Zion).
2.3 Anti-Semitic threats have been made
or implied in many of the pronouncements by al-Qaeda and its associated
terrorist groups. We noted these calls in our previous submission.
There have been others since then, eg Osama Bin Laden's broadcast
in February 2003 on al-Jazeera satellite TV, in which he stated
that: "the Jews are the lords of usury and the leaders of
treachery who believe that other humans are their slaves".
He also repeated the off-quoted Hadith according to which the
Muslims must kill the Jews on Judgement Day.
2.4 The terrorist attacks on the Djerba
Synagogue and the Israeli-owned hotel in Mombassa during 2002
provide evidence that al-Qaeda and its associates have the capability
of carrying out their threats.
Warnings from the Metropolitan Police Service
during the past 12 months, which have been conveyed by the Community
Security Trust to the Jewish community throughout Britain, suggest
that our community may also have been a target for al-Qaeda. The
community continues to maintain a high level of security cover
as a consequence.
2.5 Recent arrests in Britain and elsewhere
indicate the extent of the Islamist terrorist network associated
with, and directed by, al-Qaeda. The increasing involvement of
North Africans in this infrastructure is of particular concern.
As was noted in our previous submission, such groups have attacked
Jewish community targets, most particularly in France in 1995.
2.6 Central Asia, Bosnia and Chechnya are
the new recruitment and training grounds for Islamist terrorism,
since the loss of its facilities in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen.
This is turn raises particular problems for the UK owing to the
influx of asylum seekers from the former Yugoslavia.
3. Terrorist risks arising from the Iraq war
3.1 The war against Iraq has aroused terrorist
threats, including the threat of suicide terrorism, from Islamists
throughout the Muslim world, but most particularly the Arab world.
3.2 For example, a meeting of prominent
Islamist religious leaders and intellectuals from various Arab
countries which gathered in Dubai at the end of November 2002
called for a Jihad against the USA if it went to war against Iraq.
They stated that such a war was a joint American and Zionist plot
to extend their hegemony over the Arab world.
3.3 The threats have grown more strident
since then. In January 2003 Iraq radio began broadcasting statements
that the pressure on its government was a consequence of the Zionist
lobby in Britain. From the start of the Coalition's military campaign,
broadcasts have been made on Iraq TV and satellite TV (which is
available throughout the Arab world), blaming the war on the US
and the UK, and stating that they were doing the bidding of their
Zionist masters. In April the Ba'ath Party National Command called
for an attack on British and American interests blaming the war
on the Zionists.
3.4 The Palestinian Ulema Association (the
Association of Religious Scholars) declared a Jihad against the
USA, and the Hamas military wing called for suicide bombings against
the USA, twice, in February and March. The General Secretary of
Hizbollah, Hasan Nasrallah, has also recently called for suicide
bombings. Statements calling for Jihad have likewise been made
by authoritative and influential Muslim figures in the Arab world,
eg Sheikh Tantawi of the Al-Azhar University in Cairo. The Central
Muslim Spiritual Board in Russia, for only the second time in
history, declared a Jihad following the outbreak of war against
Iraq. (The first was in 1941 against the Nazi invasion.)
3.5 A consequence of all these calls has
been that volunteers travelled to Iraq to be trained in terrorism,
and suicide terrorism. Among those travelling were reportedly
Palestinians from Lebanon, some of whom were arrested by Coalition
forces on their way to training camps in Iraq, having travelled
via Syria and who were in possession of Syrian passports. One
camp, described as a training camp for foreign volunteers, was
managed by the Palestine Liberation Front (responsible for the
1985 Achille Lauro terrorist attack).
3.6 Particularly worrying has been the call
for Jihad against the US and UK in March by the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood has a growing and vocal presence in Britain,
embodied in the Muslim Association of Britain.
4. The Role of Iran
4.1 In our previous submissions we noted
the important role that Iran has played in seeking to undermine
the security of the State of Israel by staging terrorist attacks
against Jewish communities around the world.
The indictment by the Argentinean judicial authorities
of senior Iranian government figures at the beginning of March
2003, following an extensive investigation into the 1994 bombing
of the Jewish Community Centre in Buenos Aires, clearly shows
that such attacks are initiated at the highest level of the Iranian
government.
4.2 In recent years Iran, or surrogate organisations
acting on its behalf, have staged terrorist attacks against Jewish
communities or Israeli institutions. For example: the March 1992
attack against the Neveh Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul; the March
1992 assassination of a security guard at the Israel Embassy in
Ankara; the 1992 attempted assassination of Turkish Jewish community
leader, Jacques Kimhi; the March 1992 bombing of the Israel Embassy
in Buenos Aires; the July 1994 bombing of the AMIA building in
Buenos Aires (referred to above). All are now known to have been
organised by Iran.
In April 1996 the German and Belgian police
foiled an Iranian attempt to smuggle arms into Belgium via Antwerp
on the Iranian ship, Iran Kollahdooz. The subsequent investigation
showed that these would probably have been used against Jewish
and Israeli targets. In 1996 the South African government announced
that it was aware that Iran and Hizbollah were building terrorist
training facilities in South Africa and Nigeria, and the Argentinean
government noted the presence of Hizbollah training facilities
on the Argentina-Paraguay border area.
It is apparent therefore that attacks were carried
out by Iran and/or its surrogates until the mid-1990s, but from
1996 onwards the Iranian government was deterred from carrying
out further attacks as a result of Western government warnings.
4.3 Further evidence has now come to light
of continued Iranian involvement in gathering intelligence against
Jewish communities around the world. For example Jewish community
security personnel in Geneva recently prevented access to a synagogue
by individuals who were subsequently traced back to the Iranian
Embassy. It is believed they were on an intelligence-gathering
mission.
4.4 It should be noted that Hizbollah has
increased its military activities in southern Lebanon and against
Israel. In particular Hizbollah has attempted to infiltrate foreign
nationals, including converts to Islam, into Israel. Four cases
should be noted:
In 1996 Mohammed Hussein Miqdad travelled to
Israel to commit acts of terrorism on a forged British passport
in the name of Andrew Newman; in 1997 a German national, Stephan
Smyrek, travelled to Israel to commit terrorism but was apprehended;
in January 2001 a Lebanese-British dual national, Jihad Shurman,
travelled to Israel to commit acts of terror but was apprehended;
in June 2002 an Arab-born Canadian national, Fawzi Ayub, travelled
to Israel to commit acts of terror but was apprehended.
4.5 In November 2002 an editorial in the
Iranian government linked Kayhan newspaper threatened the lives
of Zionists around the world. It noted that "Israel's main
supporters are outside Palestine, in America, Europe and other
parts of the world, being easily accessible . . . another front
must be opened outside Occupied Palestine. Revolutionary Muslims
must use this to threaten the lives of Zionists and their supporters
across the world."
4.6 The evidence available to Jewish communities
and to state security organisations is that terrorism will continue
to be used by Iran. or its surrogates such as Hizbollah and Palestinian
Islamic Jihad, when it is politically expedient for them to do
so.
An infrastructure capable of planning. supporting
and mounting acts of terrorism already exists in Europe, including
Britain.
5. Palestinian involvement in foreign terrorism
5.1 Contradictory rulings on suicide terrorism
have been made by Palestinian, Muslim and Islamist religious leaders.
Primarily these have been directed against Israel but now in the
wake of the Iraq war they are also directed against the US and
the UK.
5.2 Prior to the Madrid and Oslo peace processes,
Palestinian terrorist groups were involved in terrorism around
the world. The recent recruitment of foreign volunteers, following
the collapse of the peace process and the start of the second
Intifada, suggests that those Palestinian groups opposed to the
peace process may yet hit out at foreign states.
5,3 It should be noted that neither Hamas
nor Palestinian Islamic Jihad have foregone the use of suicide
terrorism against Israel. Terrorism continues on a daily basis.
As recently as January Hamas spokesmen on the Hizbollah linked
Mainar Beirut television station noted that it will continue its
suicide operations against Israel, although it ruled out such
acts beyond the immediate theatre of operations.
5.4 Pro-Palestinian western groups, such
as the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which sends foreign
volunteers, including British volunteers, to work in Palestinian
institutions and refugee camps, have twice recently been involved
with Palestinian terrorist groups. A significant faction of the
ISM, which goes under the name Che-Leila Brigade, has links to
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP has
a record of terrorism against Jewish communities.
Recruitment of foreign sympathisers is not now
just a possibility; it is a reality.
6. Assessment
6.1 Terrorism still poses a considerable
risk to Britain, its interests, and to Jewish communities, including
that in Britain.
6.2 The threat arises from four sources:
(i) As a reaction to, and as a retaliation
against, the war against Iraq. This threat arises from Iraq itself,
sympathetic Arab states, and from Islamist terrorist groups.
(ii) From al-Qaeda and its associates. Despite
crippling blows to its infrastructure, al-Qaeda still appears
to have a viable infrastructure in Europe and continues to threaten
Jewish communities.
(iii) The Iranian government directly, but
also covertly and via surrogates, seeks to undermine the security
of the State of Israel by attacking Israeli institutions and Jewish
communities around the world. There is evidence of continued collection
of intelligence against these.
(iv) Palestinian groups opposed to the peace
process have threatened to continue terrorism against Israel,
Despite renouncing terrorism beyond Israel there is evidence that
some groups may be seeking to re-establish foreign infrastructures.
Elements of this may exist now in Britain.
Board of Deputies of British Jews
April 2003
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