Hamas leaders, retired US officials, academics, policymakers convene in pro-Oct. 7 conference

A conference commending Hamas’s October 7 massacre convened in Istanbul this week, hosting an array of terrorist leaders, policymakers, and academics, with several antisemitic expressions being sounded on stage.

The conference was titled “Palestine—' Toufan Al-Aqsa’ and Regional and International Orders—Impact, Implications, and Future Directions.”

‘Toufan Al-Aqsa’ or Flood of Al-Aqsa is the name given by Hamas for its October 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of 250 hostages between the ages of 9 and 85.

The event was organized by the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), which is headed by Sami Al-Arian, an academic deported from the US a couple of decades ago after pleading guilty to providing services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), as well as the Kuala Lumpur Forum from Malaysia.

One of the speakers who led the opening remarks was Hamas official Osama Hamdan. He lauded the massacre and commended the ‘unapologetic’ Jihad, prophesying a future in which Israel does not appear on the map.

Another main speaker was the former Prime Minister of Malaysia and head of the Kuala Lumpur forum, Mahathir Mohamad, renowned for his antisemitic approach, who in his video-recorded speech stressed that Israelis and Zionists control the world.

Mounir Saeed, another key speaker, is head of the Global Coalition for the Support of Al-Quds and Palestine (GCQP), an Istanbul-based organization pertaining to the Muslim Brotherhood axis with close organizational and ideological ties to the Al-Quds International Institute (QII), designated as a Hamas proxy by both the US and Israel.

Lauding the October 7

In his speech, Saeed lauded the massacre and expressed his will to be a soldier in the battle himself, also propagating antisemitic conspiracy theories such as claiming that the Israeli flag expresses Israel’s will to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. He also lauded Hamas’s late leader Ismail Haniyeh, commended Sheikh Hamid Al-Ahmar, head of QII, which was designated only last week by the US Treasury as a main financier of Hamas activity, and saluted Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, the former spiritual authority of the Muslim Brotherhood who endorsed suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.

The speaker lineup also featured actors from outside the Middle East, including Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff of the US State Department under Colin Powell. Wilkerson argued during his video-conference speech that the war was initiated by Israel, denounced NATO and its supposed expansionism, and prophesied that Israel as a Jewish state will soon cease to exist.

Another from the US was Scott Ritter, a former Marines intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector found guilty in 2011 for an online molesting affair, who claimed that the entire world owes Hamas gratitude for the attack, which according to him is going to bring the collapse of the US empire.

Other keynote speakers at the conference included academics Joseph Massad from Columbia University, John Quigley from Ohio State University, and Ilan Pappé from the University of Exeter.

Turkey, under Erdogan’s two-decade-long rule, is one of the staunchest supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood axis and what is known as ‘Political Islam’, of which Hamas is a local branch. The country also hosted Hamas leaders for years and provided asylum for its leadership, granting support through a series of NGOs and media endeavors.