• A legal application to remove the Hamas terror ban has been submitted to UK home secretary Yvette Cooper.
• British lawyers are appealing the 2021 decision by then Home secretary Priti Patel that designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Hamas has instructed British lawyers to appeal the UK’s designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization in 2021.
Mousa Abu Marzouk, the head of Hamas’ foreign relations office, has instructed lawyers to appeal the 2021 decision to designate Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
The move does not cover the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas that was designated in 2001 but covers all the other elements of the organisation including the political wing.
The appeal has begun with a 106-page application submitted to Home secretary Yvette Cooper today which claims that the 2021 decision was “pursued explicitly political objectives by a politically compromised Secretary of State”.
The lawyers and experts involved in the case have said they were not paid by Hamas as it is illegal to receive funds from a group designated as a terrorist organisation.
The Home secretary has 90 days to respond to the application and under section 4 of the Terrorism Act, any group proscribed as a terrorist organisation can appeal to remove its name from the government’s list of banned organisations.
If the home secretary rejects the application, Hamas could launch an appeal to the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission where they can challenge the decision on judicial review grounds.
Grutters, one of the three journalists involved in the case said: “There is an urgent need for honest, intelligent, and nuanced conversations about the situation in Palestine,”
“Regardless of your opinion on Hamas, a policy which has the effect of stifling discussion is unhelpful and acts as a substantial hurdle to reaching a long-term political settlement.”
In Wednesday’s legal submission, Hamas said the proscription hindered the group’s ability to broker a political solution to the conflict and held back conversations in securing a long-term political settlement while criminalising ordinary Palestinians residing in Gaza.
