OPINION: Riverway Law and the line between civilisation and savagery
By choosing to represent Hamas, this grubby little outfit has done Britain a public service, leaving 7 October apologists nowhere to hide
Richard Ferrer has been editor of Jewish News since 2009. As one of Britain's leading Jewish voices he writes for The Times, Independent, New Statesman and many other titles. Richard previously worked at the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, edited the Boston Jewish Advocate and created the Channel 4 TV series Jewish Mum Of The Year.
Every now and then, a moment arrives that cuts through the fog of bad faith arguments and intellectual dishonesty. This is one.
It would, frankly, be bad manners not to applaud Riverway Law for scrapping its fees to represent Hamas (won’t somebody think of the terrorists?!), in its noble bid to get the Gaza-based community outreach group de-listed as a terrorist organisation in the UK.
Honestly, it’s the best thing that’s happened to the moral state of this country’s conversation about the Gaza war since 7 October 2023.
For 18 months, certain voices with sizable social media followings – academics, activists, commentators and celebrities (you know who you are) – have tip-toed around the abyss, muttering about “both sides” while pretending this is somehow complicated. Pretending Hamas is, at its core, “resistance”. Pretending Hamas has “genuine grievances”. Pretending it is, in some way, a graspable political cause.
There is no grey. No complicated nuance. No both sides sophistry. There is Hamas. And there is humanity
Well, this nifty little legal stunt has done us all a big favour by drawing a line in the sand. There can be no more hiding in the grey fog of “grievance” and “resistance”. No more chin stroking, pretending you don’t know which side you’re on. No more darkness disguised as light.
There is the side of Western civilisation – messy, flawed, lumbered with some of the most self-serving leaders in its history but built on liberty, equality and the sanctity of life. Or the side of Riverway Law, so far gone, so beyond shame, that it’s happily doing pro bono PR work for a baby kidnapping death cult that filmed its own butchery on 7 October, bragged about it to the world and promised to do it again. The side that views living Jews as unfinished business.
This submission from Hamas’ hired guns, solicitor Farhad Ansari and barristers Franck Magennis and Daniel Grutters, isn’t a legal challenge. It’s a moral one. The most basic moral test a human being can face.
This is the best thing that could happen for the moral state of this country’s conversation about the Gaza war
It leaves the apologists of 7 October nowhere to hide — no shadows left to shelter in, no slogans left to parrot. It exposes a worldview at war with every British value. A worldview that the lowlife who rip down posters of stolen Jewish children pretend to tolerate.
No more academic word games. No more nuance or mealy-mouthed social media posts. No more turning up to weekend rallies to bleat “From the river to the sea” and kid yourself it means anything other than Hamas finishing what it started.
Because when the debates are done, when the hashtags fade and when a British law firm draws Hamas’ battle line in the soil of this country, every single one of us is left with a simple choice – with no middle ground left to hide in. Hamas. Or humanity.
WATCH: Talk TV’s Peter Cardwell asks Hamas’ lawyer Franck Magennis: “How do you sleep at night?”
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