Majed al-Zeer (born 1962) [1] [2] is a Jordanian-British [3] activist and director of the Palestinian Return Centre. According to the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and the United States Treasury, he is the senior representative in Germany for Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States. [1] [4]
al-Zeer was born in the village of Harmala. He attended schools in Kuwait, and graduated from Kuwait University with an engineering degree. He moved to the United Kingdom in the 1990s. [2]
al-Zeer helped found the Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) in 1996. The organization put on events that hosted Labour politicians including Jeremy Corbyn, Andy Slaughter, Ian Murray, and Baroness Tonge. [2]
He met with then-leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashal, and Iranian interior minister, Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, who helped found Hezbollah, at a 2008 conference in Damascus. [2]
Israel declared the PRC an illegal affiliate of Hamas in 2010, enacting sanctions, and then sanctioned al-Zeer in 2013. [5] [6] Over the years, he has been linked to groups believed by Israel to be fronts for Hamas in Europe, including the Council for European Palestinian Relations. [7] He was denied entry into Jordan in 2013 without explanation, despite being a citizen. [8] He moved from London to Berlin in 2014, and lives in Neukölln. [1] He won a settlement against World-Check for $13,000 plus legal fees, after the background check database company flagged him as linked to terrorism. The designation led to the closure of several bank accounts for him and his organization between 2009 and 2015. [6] He met with Ismail Haniyeh in 2015, who was led Hamas in the Gaza Strip at the time. Hamas also congratulated al-Zeer that year for helping the PRC become a consultant for the United Nations Economic and Social Council. He blamed the United Kingdom for "crimes committed against the Palestinian people" at a conference in 2021, and later gave a speech in Berlin saying that Israel would fall in only a matter of time. [2]
He attended a Palestinian conference in Malmö, Sweden in May 2023, which was boycotted by the Palestine Liberation Organization, which accused the organizers of being linked to terrorism and seeking to divide the Palestinian people. [9] [10] al-Zeer met Swedish politician Jamal El-Haj, and conference chairman Amin Abu Rashid, who was arrested by Dutch police shortly thereafter for allegedly raising millions of euros for Hamas. [9]
He posted on Facebook that the October 7 attacks were Palestinian self-defense. German police searched for evidence at his residence on November 23 during raids that targeted Hamas affiliates. [1] The German Interior Ministry and United States Treasury both state that he is responsible for broad European Hamas fundraising and activity, and is close to the organization's leadership. [1] [4] Weapons were found underground during these raids, which were alleged to be used in planned attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe. [9] British Labour MP Christian Wakeford accused al-Zeer of being a Hamas operative in November 2023. [2] According to the United States Treasury, he was part of a delegation to the Middle East with Adel Doughman and Mohammad Hannoun for Hamas. The trio were sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control on October 7, 2024 in a crackdown on Hamas fundraising ability. [4] al-Zeer rejected the accusations and stated the action was to discourage his work for Palestinian rights, and was pursuing legal action to contest the restrictions. [3] The Henry Jackson Society and UK Lawyers for Israel pushed in 2025 for the United Kingdom to join the United States and sanction him. [11]
Germany issued an arrest warrant for al-Zeer in May 2025, and contacted Swedish police, believing him to have fled to Sweden. [9] However, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post , he may actually be in Turkey per tweets indicating he was at a conference there hosted by Sami Al-Arian, a scholar who was deported from the United States in 2015 after pleading guilty in 2006 to helping raise money for Palestinian Islamic Jihad. [7] [12]
al-Zeer is married with five children. [2]