US to remove Palestinian group, radical Jewish group from its list of terror orgs

The US plans to remove a radical Jewish group and a Palestinian group which has fought against the occupation from its list of terror organisations.

According to AP, US State Department notified Congress on Friday of the moves which includes the removal of five groups which are believed to now be defunct. The groups include Kahane Chai, or Kach. The radical Orthodox Jewish group which has killed Arabs, Palestinians and Israeli government officials. The Mujahidin Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem is also set to have its designation revoked, it has carried out resistance operations against the occupation. Egypt’s Gama’a Al-Islamiyya – Islamic Group–IG, which fought to overthrow the North African state’s regime in the 1990s, killing police, security forces and tourists, will also be removed from the list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations.

Aum Shinrikyo (AUM), the Japanese “Supreme Truth” cult that carried out the deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995 that killed 13 people and Basque Fatherland and Liberty (ETA), which ran a separatist campaign of bombings and assassinations in northern Spain and elsewhere for decades that killed more than 800 people are also included in the decision.

This come at the time as an increasingly divisive but unrelated debate in Washington and elsewhere about whether Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard should or can be legally removed from the US list as part of efforts to salvage the Iran nuclear deal.

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