The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has submitted a authorized submitting saying that it needs to be faraway from the UK authorities’s checklist of proscribed terrorist teams.
Hamas, which carried out the 7 October 2023 assaults on southern Israel, wherein greater than 1,200 individuals, primarily civilians, had been killed and an additional 250 taken hostage, is arguing that it’s not a terrorist group however “a Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance motion whose purpose is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist mission”.
The assertion is contained in a witness assertion by Mousa Abu Marzouk, head of worldwide relations for Hamas and the applicant for the declare to the UK dwelling secretary, Yvette Cooper, revealed by Drop Web site Information.
His assertion continues: “The British authorities’s determination to proscribe Hamas is an unjust one that’s symptomatic of its unwavering assist for Zionism, apartheid, occupation and ethnic cleaning in Palestine for over a century. Hamas doesn’t and by no means has posed a risk to Britain, regardless of the latter’s ongoing complicity within the genocide of our individuals.”
The Residence Workplace mentioned it doesn’t touch upon proscription issues.
Hamas’s navy wing, Hamas IDQ, was proscribed by the UK in 2001. In 2021, its political wing which runs Gaza, was additionally proscribed, with the UK authorities describing the excellence between the 2 wings as “synthetic” and labelling Hamas “a posh however single terrorist organisation”.
If an organisation is proscribed as a terrorist organisation it’s a legal offence to, amongst different issues, belong to it, present or categorical assist for it, and put on clothes or carry or show articles in public which might arouse cheap suspicion that the person is a member or supporter of it.
In a doc offered to Drop Web site summarising its authorized arguments, Hamas’s authorized workforce reportedly mentioned it represents the group professional bono as a result of it could be unlawful to just accept cost beneath British legislation. It quotes the legal professionals as saying: “Hamas doesn’t deny that its actions fall throughout the broad definition of ‘terrorism’ beneath the Terrorism Act 2000. As an alternative, it notes that the definition additionally covers all teams and organisations world wide that use violence to attain political goals, together with the Israeli armed forces, the Ukrainian military and certainly the British armed forces.”
Terrorism is outlined within the act as the usage of or risk of motion, together with critical violence in opposition to an individual or injury to property, the place it’s “designed to affect the federal government or a global governmental organisation or to intimidate the general public or a bit of the general public, and have to be undertaken for the aim of advancing a political, spiritual, racial or ideological trigger”.
Hamas is represented by Riverway Legislation. The legal professionals state: “Fairly than permit freedom of speech, police have launched into a marketing campaign of political intimidation and persecution of journalists, teachers, peace activists and college students over their perceived assist for Hamas. Folks in Britain have to be free to talk about Hamas and its battle to revive to the Palestinian individuals the correct to self-determination.”
In addition they argue proscription is opposite to Britain’s obligations beneath worldwide legislation to forestall genocide and crimes in opposition to humanity, and finish Israel’s unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territories. It says Hamas is the “solely efficient navy power resisting” such acts.
Priti Patel, the shadow overseas secretary, mentioned: “Hamas is an evil Iranian-backed terrorist organisation, which kidnaps, tortures and murders individuals, together with British nationals. They pose an ongoing risk to our safety and to the peace and stability of the Center East they usually have weapons and coaching amenities that put lives in danger and threaten our pursuits. They present no respect for human rights, life and dignity and have oppressed individuals dwelling in Gaza for too lengthy.”
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