UK dismisses Hamas attempt to remove 'terrorist' designation

The UK’s Home Office has rejected an application by the Palestinian group Hamas to be removed from the list of banned terrorist organisations.

In April, the London-based law firm Riverway Law launched a legal challenge on behalf of Hamas to have the group removed as a terror organisation, amid Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.

Riverway argued that the UK’s continued proscription of Hamas obstructs efforts to reach a lasting political solution to the conflict and breaches the UK’s international obligations to prevent genocide and apartheid.

It also said that the ban was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) because it restricted freedom of speech and was excessive because Hamas "does not pose a threat to Britain or British citizens".

In 2021, the UK’s then-Home Secretary Priti Patel designated all Hamas’s branches as a "terrorist group". Before then, only its armed wing was proscribed. It became an offence in the UK to be a member of Hamas, display its symbols, or voice support for it.

The UK’s Times newspaper reported the Home Office as saying: "The government keeps the list of proscribed organisations under regular review. While we do not routinely comment on individual groups proscribed, we can confirm that Harakat al-Muqawamah (Hamas) is still listed as a proscribed organisation."

Since it launched the legal challenge, the law firm representing Hamas had relaunched itself as "Riverway to the Sea", in reference to the well-known pro-Palestine slogan, and dedicated itself to "understanding and confronting the racist ideology of Zionism" through "strategic litigation".

After the Home Office’s dismissal, Hamas is allowed to appeal to the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission. This can only succeed, however, if the commission rules that the Home Office’s dismissal was legally flawed.

However, only four groups have been taken off the list of banned terrorist organisations since 2000, when the UK passed its current Terrorism Act.

Earlier this month, the UK proscribed Palestine Action, a nonviolent direct action group, as a terrorist organisation after its activists broke into the UK’s largest airbase and sprayed red paint on warplanes they said were aiding Israel in its war on the Gaza Strip, which has so far killed over 57,000 Palestinians.