Mousa Abu Marzouk: Hamas’s Top Spokesman, Diplomat, and Financier

Mousa Abu Marzouk: Hamas’s Top Spokesman, Diplomat, and Financier

Mousa Abu Marzouk is a founding member of Hamas, and is now one of its top diplomats and media personalities, though he was once a contender for the organization’s highest political office (Middle East Online, November 15, 2016; Al Jazeera, November 22). He is also a billionaire and key financier of the group. Marzouk is based in Doha, Qatar, where he is a senior member of Hamas’s political bureau. Marzouk recently stated in an interview with New Yorker magazine that neither he nor any other member of Hamas’s political wing had prior knowledge of the planned massacre that occurred on October 7 (Times of Israel, October 14). This is plausible, given the amount of surveillance that surrounds top Hamas leaders in Doha, but also highlights the complex and secretive nature of Gaza’s ruling party.

Early Years and Life in the United States

Born in Gaza’s Rafah refugee camp in 1951 to parents who were forcibly relocated there by Israeli forces in 1948, Mousa Marzouk completed high school in Gaza before travelling to Egypt sometime in the mid-1960s. He reportedly joined the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 1968 and completed a degree in engineering in Cairo in 1976 (Ynet News, February 20, 2006). After graduation, Marzouk attempted to find work in the Gulf region before travelling to the United States, likely sometime in the late 1970s. While in the United States, he was actively involved in a group called the Islamic Organization for Palestine and received a master’s degree in industrial sciences at Colorado State University. After this, Marzouk relocated his family to Ruston, Louisiana to begin doctoral studies at Louisiana Tech University. He and his family moved once again to Virginia sometime in the latter half of the 1980s (Washington Post, August 8, 1995). Living in the United States at the time of Hamas’s founding in 1987 and joining at or around its inception, Marzouk is credited with creating the group’s international fundraising framework. This allowed Hamas to develop its initial infrastructure in Gaza, including several humanitarian and social programs run from 1989 to 1992 (The Forward, April 20, 2012).

The lead up to the United States’ eventual designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization in 1997 resulted in a series of legal troubles for Marzouk, who was living in the United States with a green card at the time. On July 25, 1995, he was arrested at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on suspicion of terrorist activity (New Yorker, August 11, 1996). Marzouk was held from then on at the Manhattan Correctional Center, eventually being released without charge in 1997 after a deal was reached that extradited him to Jordan (New York Times, May 6, 1997). In 2004, a US court indicted him in absentia for coordinating and financing Hamas’s activities (US District Court Northern District Illinois Eastern Division, August 27, 2004).

Dealmaker-in-Exile

Marzouk lived in Jordan until 2001, staying for a period in Damascus and Cairo before settling in Doha, where he continues to reside (Ynet News, January 17, 2012; Times of Israel, October 14). Outwardly, Marzouk’s current role in Hamas appears to be that of spokesman and top diplomat. In September, he attended a summit with his Fatah counterpart in Beirut to discuss ending clashes between Islamist factions and Fatah forces in southern Lebanon’s Ein Al-Hilweh refugee camp (Al Jazeera, September 13; see also TM, December 1). Marzouk also travelled to Moscow on October 26, where he discussed the ongoing war in Gaza with Russian deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, and Iranian deputy foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani (Times of Israel, October 26). During this meeting, Marzouk reportedly briefed Russian officials on the causes of the October 7 attack, discussed the release of hostages taken from Israel with Russian citizenship, and praised Russia’s diplomatic response to the war (Arshaq al-Aswat, October 28).

Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Marzouk has served as a media spokesperson for Hamas, giving interviews with various Middle Eastern, American, and European media outlets (Anadolu, October 30; CBS News, November 20; BBC, November 7). He made headlines on October 31 when, in a televised interview, he claimed that tunnels under Gaza were there to protect Hamas alone. The protection of civilians in Gaza, he suggested, was instead the responsibility of the United Nations and Israel (Jerusalem Post, October 31). Marzouk has at times used his media prominence to criticize Hamas’s allies, stating in an interview on Egyptian television that “the reaction of the axis of resistance is disappointing,” appearing to refer to Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria’s failure to directly join Hamas’s war effort (Jerusalem Post, October 19). It was also Marzouk who announced that Hamas would release at least 50 hostages and enter into a ceasefire agreement with Israel on October 23 (Times of Israel, November 22). Marzouk has notably presented more nuanced views on behalf of Hamas, stating once in an interview that the group recognizes that Israel exists and acknowledges agreements made with it. Instead, he argued, Hamas specifically refuses to recognize the legitimacy of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands (Ynet, February 20, 2006).

In addition to diplomacy, Marzouk is reportedly an “amazing financier,” overseeing a conglomerate of an estimated ten financial enterprises that engage in lending and investment ventures. In 2014, his personal net worth was estimated to be between $2-3 billion (Globes, July 24, 2014). The substantial wealth and financial acumen possessed by Marzouk suggests a much more important role than that of a mere diplomat or spokesman. The process by which Hamas’s political wing channels funds provided by donors, charities, and foreign governments—such as Iran and Qatar—to the militant wing in Gaza remains opaque. Cryptocurrencies have offered one such way to circumvent international sanctions in the past (Globes, October 29). Given Marzouk’s talent for fundraising and finance, and the tremendous wealth he reportedly wields, it is likely that he also plays a substantial role in this process—and perhaps benefits from it personally.

Conclusion

Mousa Abu Marzouk is one of Hamas’s most visible leaders and plays an important role as a key diplomat and spokesman for the group on the world stage. However, his talents for fundraising and business also suggest a role as one of the organization’s most important financiers, possibly working behind the scenes to channel money to the group’s militant wing in Gaza. Given the scale of the ongoing war, it is likely that Marzouk will remain a highly prominent media and diplomatic figure—and almost certainly a financial one as well, whether or not it is publicly visible.