Al-Qalam 
By Al-Qalam Reporter
Iqbal Jassat, an executive member of the Media Review Network (MRN), has welcomed efforts by a team of British lawyers to have Hamas unbanned. The legal challenge has been backed by top legal minds, including South African jurist Professor John Dugard.
Hamas enlisted a team of British lawyers to represent its appeal to the British Home Secretary and to challenge the movement’s terror designation, which went into effect in 2021. The British government designated the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, a proscribed group in 2001, but not the political movement as a whole.
In a statement issued by MRN, it said: “We view it as a crucial intervention to reverse the unjust and wholly arbitrary action by Britain’s former Home Secretary Priti Patel, who in 2021 added Hamas to a list of proscribed organisations.
“We are pleased that the initiative to restore Hamas’s status as a legitimate and authentic Palestinian organisation has been mounted by a London-based law firm, Riverway Law, and backed by an array of legal minds, including South African jurist Professor John Dugard.
“We note that the application is firmly grounded in both British domestic law as well as International Law. It makes a compelling argument that the UK is obliged under international law to undertake steps to end and prevent the crime of genocide and apartheid.
“We welcome that the application makes a strong case against banning and proscription by arguing that it is an assault on fundamental rights.
The group said the discourse on Palestine and its struggle against Israel’s genocidal policies including illegal settlements and ethnic cleansing, requires open debate – not hampered by restrictions on free speech.
“We therefore call on the British government to reverse the proscription of Hamas by responding positively to the sound legal arguments presented in the detailed submission by Riverway Law.
In the extraordinary legal filing submitted Wednesday in London, Hamas argued that the British government should remove its designation of the movement as a proscribed terror group and recognize its legitimate role as a Palestinian resistance movement engaged in a struggle for self-determination and liberation.
A top political leader of Hamas rejected allegations that the movement is an anti-semitic terror organization, asserted that Hamas poses no threat to Western nations, and argued that the political organization has never engaged in an armed operation outside the boundaries of historic Palestine.
“Hamas is not a terrorist group. It is a Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project,” wrote the head of international relations for Hamas, and the applicant for the claim to the U.K. home secretary, in a signed and submitted witness statement provided to Drop Site. “We also look outwards to draw inspiration from the glorious tradition of all those peoples and groups who have resisted colonialism, occupation and imperialism in the name of justice, dignity, and human equality,” referencing historical struggles against colonialism and imperialism from across the world. The legal summary prepared by lawyers representing Hamas highlights the African National Congress in South Africa and Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Army in Ireland as historical analogues to Hamas and the fight for Palestinian liberation.
Marzouk charged that Hamas has been subjected to a concerted smear campaign about its official position, including support for a Palestinian state defined by the borders that existed prior to Israel’s invasion and occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem in June 1967—and the subsequent violent campaign of annexation of Palestinian land that continues to this day.
In their case summary, Hamas’s lawyers argue that Britain has a legal duty to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity and to work to end the Israeli occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories. “Proscription is contrary to Britain’s obligations under international law,” the lawyers wrote. “Hamas is the only effective military force resisting – and seeking to end and prevent – the ongoing acts of genocide and crimes against humanity being committed by the Zionist State against the Palestinians in Gaza. Its continued proscription is purposefully – and in any event practically – inhibiting the efforts of the Palestinian people to use military force to end and prevent those ongoing acts of genocide.”
Hamas is represented in the UK by the Riverway Law firm, which has enlisted two experienced British barristers to present the legal case for becoming delisted as a terror group. “The application comes in a context which is, in some ways, overwhelmingly obvious. The context is that Israel has seemingly become a pariah state and its ideology of Zionism has become toxic,” said Franck Magennis, the barrister presenting the case to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. “The price of associating yourself with the Israeli government is becoming far too high even for its staunchest allies. And even though strictly that shouldn’t affect the legal analysis—the Secretary of State should consider the application on its merits—it’s clear that she has an extremely broad discretion about who she does and doesn’t decide to add to the list of proscribed organizations,” Magennis told Drop Site. “There’s every reason to believe that she will find the arguments persuasive and will grant the application accordingly.”
In their case summary, Hamas’s lawyers argue that Britain has a legal duty to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity and to work to end the Israeli occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories. “Proscription is contrary to Britain’s obligations under international law,” the lawyers wrote. “Hamas is the only effective military force resisting – and seeking to end and prevent – the ongoing acts of genocide and crimes against humanity being committed by the Zionist State against the Palestinians in Gaza. Its continued proscription is purposefully – and in any event practically – inhibiting the efforts of the Palestinian people to use military force to end and prevent those ongoing acts of genocide.”
Hamas’s lawyers also argued that the “terror group” designation has stifled honest debate about Hamas’s aims and actions, because within the purview of the British government’s policies, any speech that ostensibly supports a terrorist organization is effectively criminalized. “Rather than allow freedom of speech, police have embarked on a campaign of political intimidation and persecution of journalists, academics, peace activists and students over their perceived support for Hamas,” the lawyers argued. “People in Britain must be free to speak about Hamas and its struggle to restore to the Palestinian people the right to self-determination.”
