YOUR PALESTINIAN EXPAT CLIENT COULD BE A HAMAS AGENT

The leaders of Hamas and Turkey

A sideshow in the the current conflict between Hamas and the State of Israel; Media reports from the Middle East today detailed multiple arrests, in Israel, of suspected Hamas operatives involved in an operation aimed at eliminating the Palestinian Authority as the governing body in the West Bank, and replacing it with Hamas. The plotters planned to engage in a massive bombing campaign inside Israel, aimed at destabilizing the PA to the degree that it would be ineffective, opening the door for Hamas agents to take command, and thereafter rule the territory.

This is relevant to compliance, because Palestinians who were Hamas members were commanding the operation from outside the territories, in countries where they presently reside ; the countries named included Turkey and Jordan. This means that Palestinian expats, wherever located, include active Hamas agents engaged in terrorist operations.

Given the background of those expats known to involved, it would be prudent for you to check your Palestinian expat bank clients:

(1) Have any of them been convicted of terrorist crimes in Israel, and subsequently been released and deported ?

(2) Have any of them been sending large sums to the Middle East, under circumstances that would suggest that these payments were not made in the ordinary course of business ?

(3) have any of them been identified with Hamas ?

This is certainly not paranoia; given the magnitude of the case described above, it is reasonable to suspect that there are other terrorist operations in planning, or actually in progress.  If you do not have a good picture of precisely whom your affluent Palestinian clients are, it is time that you conduct enhanced due diligence, so as to rule them as as possible Hamas financiers, or field agents.