Hamas bid to have name removed from UK terror group list ‘destined to fail’
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said: 'Hamas is a terrorist organisation... it was a barbaric terrorist attack on October 7'
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
An attempt by Hamas to have its name removed from the list of proscribed terror organisations in the UK is destined to fail, Jewish News understands.
Lawyers representing the Islamist group have submitted a legal filing to Home Secretary Yvetter Cooper arguing that the proscription of Hamas is incompatible with protections for freedom of expression under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Legal sources say the Home Secretary now has 90 days in which she must reach a decision.
While neither Copper nor the Home Office is likely to publicly comment ahead of any decision, Cooper said only last week:”Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It was a barbaric terrorist attack on October 7. Hamas has long been a terrorist organisation.
“We maintain our view about the barbaric nature of this organisation.”
Last Friday, British families of hostages murdered by Hamas in the October 7th massacre in Israel, including Mandy Damari, Ayelet Svatitzky, Steve Brisley and Sharone Lifschtiz, wrote to both Cooper and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, to state they were “horrified a law firm has been instructed by Hamas” to attempt to “de-proscribe the organisation.”
The familes added:”We are absolutely distraught at the idea this terrorist organisation would be permitted to operate in the UK.”
In the event of any challenge reaching court, the familes, who sought reassurance over the UK’s position, said they would be “willing to provide evidence” of the way the terror group’s activities have “ripped through our families.”
A refusal by Cooper of the submission, made by Hamas through the UK legal firm Riverway Law, would then leave them the option of mounting an appeal over her decision appeal to the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission.
But an appeal would only be granted if the decision taken by the Home Secretary was deemed to be flawed.
The prospect of the commission ruling that Cooper’s power to proscribe Hamas should come under challenge appears to be a distant one.
The legal expert Joshua Rozenberg, writing for the Telegraph, criticised the attempt to use the Human Rights Convention to challenge the proscription of Hamas.
He said of Fahad Mustafa Ansari, the lawyer representing Hamas:”Ansari’s submission is not only offensive to those who have had to fight for these fundamental rights.
“It glosses over the fact that states are allowed to restrict freedom of expression and assembly if those restrictions ‘are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety’.
“And the submission explicitly admits that Hamas is a ‘threat’ to any British nationals ‘taking part in genocide, apartheid and illegal belligerent occupation’ – as defined, of course, by Hamas.”
It was under the previous government that the distinction between the political and military wings of Hamas was deemed to be an artificial one, when in November 2021 the organisation was proscribed as a “single terrorist organisation.”
Priti Patel, home secretary at the time Hamas was proscribed, last week reacted furiously to the legal move to challenge the decision.
The now shadow foreign secretary said: “Hamas is an evil Iranian-backed terrorist organisation, which kidnaps, tortures and murders people, including British nationals. They pose an ongoing threat to our security and to the peace and stability of the Middle East and they have weapons and training facilities that put lives at risk and threaten our interests.”
This is a view held also by the current Home Secretary.
In last month’s keynote speech at the annual CST dinner Cooper told guests she would “always seek to build the broadest cross-party consensus on public protection, so that no matter who has the keys to number 10 Downing Street, our Jewish communities know that the government is on their side. ”
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