The petition to have Hamas removed from the UK ‘terrorist’ list lives on

Our petition calling for the removal of Hamas — the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement — from the UK’s Proscribed List of Terrorist Bodies continues to attract signatures following the delivery of the first tranche of 1,410 letters to 10 Downing Street. The petition remains open and we will make a second delivery when the number breaches the 3,000 mark, and so on for every 1,500 new signatories, until the Government agrees, in a campaign which the petitioners know will probably take years. Details can be found at www.tiny.cc/hamas

The point of our doing an interim submission was twofold: to get publicity so that more would sign, which hasn’t really worked, as no mainstream media outlet would cover it; it was also to reassure people about the legality and safety of signing it.

Given that pro-Palestine activists such as Craig Murray, Tony Greenstein and Mick Napier have been arrested recently for declaring support in some way for Hamas, I, as petitioner, was amazed and pleased that I was allowed by Parliamentary police to deliver the letters, along with fellow campaigners Moloy Hoque and Palestinian Zina Baird. I can only surmise that this is because I have always been careful to stay on the right side of the law and have never declared any support for Hamas. I remain free of police attention in spite of numerous attempts by journalist Heidi Bachram of the Jewish Chronicle and sundry Zionist MPs to have me charged over my activism.

So, what is the legal position? The Terrorism Act 2000 provides that “any person affected by a proscription can submit a signed, written application to the Home Secretary requesting that they consider whether a specified organisation should be removed from the list of proscribed organisations.” Since all those in support of Palestine are affected by the Hamas proscription, their petition signatures cannot be used against them. In fact, 72 of those who signed agreed to have their names revealed on their letters; the others were redacted.

Separately from the letters, 30 people have submitted written applications for Hamas’s de-proscription to the Head of Counter Terrorism Policy at the Home Office. We received the expected negative reply.

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Of course, the real power lies with Westminster, so more recently signatories have been writing directly to their MPs, making the same arguments as in the petition: that Hamas is the democratically elected government of Palestine; and that Britain regards the occupation of Palestinian land by Israel as wrong, yet by proscribing Hamas it excludes the political representatives of Palestinians, predominantly but not exclusively in Gaza, from conversations about solutions. Britain played a huge part in creating Israel, so it has a clear moral responsibility to resolve the situation and end the Israeli occupation. The petition points out that the UN does not declare Hamas to be a terrorist movement because UN Resolution 37/43 of 1982 reaffirms the legitimacy of armed struggle against colonial occupation and refers specifically to the rights of Palestinians.

Of course, the events of 7 October are cited by the UK government as justification in refusing to consider de-proscription. It ignores the fact that it was a disciplined military action; military personnel and settlers were killed (Hamas considers settlers as part of the occupation and part of the Israel Defence Forces [IDF] and say that they are not civilians). Hamas has made clear that the aim on 7 October was revenge for attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque and to capture Israeli soldiers for the purpose of a prisoner swap. Indeed, as I write this on 21 January, Hamas has released a lengthy document giving the reasoning behind the cross-border incursion. “[The] Palestinian fighters only targeted the occupation soldiers and those who carried weapons against our people,” claims Hamas. “[If] there was any case of targeting civilians, it happened accidentally and in the course of the confrontation with the occupation forces.” The movement’s account of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood can be downloaded here.

Moreover, our petition points out that evidence has come to light that many of those who died that day were killed by the IDF under its “Hannibal” directive, which aims at preventing Israelis being taken alive into Palestinian hands.

Motorcyclists with Kalashnikov rifles couldn’t have burned out 70 cars or flattened those Kibbutz homes with Israelis and Palestinians inside. This damage was caused by Apache helicopters firing Hellfire missiles at every vehicle in sight, and Merkava battle tanks firing into occupied buildings. It is significant that Israeli Air Force Colonel Nof Erez has confirmed this. An IDF video of atrocities allegedly committed by Hamas shown to British MPs is, we belive, misleading. Journalist Owen Jones reports, for example, that there is no evidence of babies being beheaded or of rape. Whilst there may have been some war crimes committed by Palestinians, there is no clear evidence this was by Hamas fighters; it’s more likely that it was down to opportunistic individuals coming from Gaza, following Al-Qassam Brigade’s nineteen breaches right along the border fence, which allowed other Palestinians to escape 16 years of an illegal blockade. Petitioners have asked MPs to indicate what they make of the evidence on our website at www.onepalestine.land/hamas/#Debunking

The political wing of Hamas was proscribed just two years ago, following then Home Secretary’s Priti Patel’s unofficial visit to Israel, prior to which the British government accepted that it was not a terrorist movement. The petition refers to Hamas’s “Document of General Principles and Policies” of May 2017 at www.tinyurl.com/hamaspolicies which states at point 16: “Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project, not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.”

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In point 20, Hamas declares “the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967 border, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.” The petition signatories point out that this position reflects that of the UN as well as the UK.

Lord Peter Hain observed recently that Israel could not destroy Hamas, no matter how many bombs it dropped. Lord Peter Rickets, the UK’s first national security adviser, said that to destroy Hamas “seems to me to be impossible” due to the political and social nature of the organisation. Even Israeli war cabinet member and former Israel Defence Forces chief of staff General Gadi Eisenkot has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as much. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shares this view, and believes that Hamas cannot be excluded from a permanent solution.

As Britain’s troubled history in Northern Ireland vividly demonstrates, observed Hain, when politics doesn’t work, violence fills the vacuum. British governments refused for decades to officially negotiate with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) because of its bomb attacks. However, when they finally did so, it resulted in the 1998 Good Friday agreement and peace. It is our belief that the UK needs to encourage the same approach for Palestine by including Hamas in talks.

The movement won 56 per cent of the seats in the 2006 Legislative Council election and formed the Palestinian Authority, only to face a boycott and an Israeli-CIA coup attempt. Although the Fatah movement won just 34 per cent of the seats, Israel and its Western allies stuck with the existing PA, with Fatah and PLO head Mahmoud Abbas as president. His term of office expired in 2009, but he is still there, having blocked fresh elections for years. During the recent truce, the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research carried out a survey into Palestinian attitudes both in the West Bank and Gaza Strip which found that almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of all respondents believe that Hamas’s decision to launch its 7 October attack on Israel was “correct”, given the context of decades of occupation and oppression at the hands of the state of Israel.

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MPs are reminded that in spite of Israel’s wholesale slaughter in Gaza, support for Hamas is rising; in the West Bank alone it has almost quadrupled from 12 per cent. It seems that with every Palestinian killed by Israel, support for Hamas increases, for Palestinians see nobody else standing up for their rights and justice; they continue to reject Fatah, whom they see as corrupt and in league with Israel. British MPs are asked to consider how reconciliation can take place by excluding the major player in the Palestinian political sphere.

Our letters note that Tony Blair said in 2017 that, “We were wrong to boycott Hamas after its election win.” Moreover, according to the present definition of terrorism, the UK would have put the partisans fighting the Nazis in World War Two on the proscribed list. Indeed, Britain’s 2003 invasion of Iraq also meets the “terrorist” criteria.

If Hamas should be proscribed as a “terrorist” movement, why isn’t Israel? It is now well established that Israel has perpetrated atrocities way in excess of anything committed by Hamas: the massacres of 1948 and the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians, and its persecution of the remainder ever since, which has killed over 70,000 and injured many thousands more; and the thousands who have been driven from their homes. After 75 years of occupation, the signs are that Palestinians are expected to suffer evermore as sub-humans under an Israeli apartheid regime, or be ethnically cleansed from their homeland.

Thus far one MP has responded: Dominic Raab is heralded by the Jewish Chronicle as one of the “Jewish… key movers and shakers” in Rishi Sunak’s cabinet. Raab replied to one constituent and said: “Hamas is an organisation which calls for the establishment of an Islamic Palestinian state under Sharia law and has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel; it has long been involved in terrorist violence… Ministers recognise the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people, but Hamas does not represent those aspirations. It offers nothing more for the Palestinian people other than more terror and more bloodshed.”

Raab conveniently ignores the fact that Hamas has said that whilst it would prefer Sharia law, it will abide by the democratic will of the people in a free Palestine. He also ignores Israel’s state terrorism which kills Palestinians and steals their land and homes. He declares that Hamas does not represent the aspirations of the Palestinians, ignoring that they were elected with a big majority in what international observers described as a “free and fair” election.

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As long as Hamas represents the majority view for Palestinians, then it is incumbent on organisations such as ourselves at One Democratic Palestine to work to ensure the movement is not excluded from negotiations. Sadly, as long as Hamas exists and is supported by the majority of Palestinians, Israel will use the “terrorist” label to justify the wholesale abuse of all Palestinians.

It will take years to convince our politicians that Hamas holds the key to peace in Palestine, but a start has been made. It is one that we campaigners will continue, for as long as it takes to establish a new democratic state of Palestine.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.