Hamas calls on UK government to remove it from list of banned terrorist groups
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/09/hamas-calls-on-the-uk-government-to-remove-it-from-list-of-banned-terrorist-groups
Posted by the-southern-snek
Hamas calls on UK government to remove it from list of banned terrorist groups
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/09/hamas-calls-on-the-uk-government-to-remove-it-from-list-of-banned-terrorist-groups
Posted by the-southern-snek
5 comments
Yeah that’s not going to ever happen. Hamas hasn’t done a good job of proving that they’re not a terrorist group. If anything, they’ve shown the opposite. If the UK were to recognize anything Palestinian, it would be the PA. Hamas is a group that’s universally hated by both Palestinian and Israeli supporters, and that’s something that’s hard to achieve.
There’s some irony at requesting to removed from the British terrorism list just 3 months after releasing a British citizen who was held hostage over a year in Gaza.
Then again, it’s better than trying this while holding a British citizen hostage.
Does the word terrorist have any meaning anymore in this context when Israel, which is partaking in mass terrorism on civilians in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria every day…is not given the label too?
Food for thought: these people designated Nelson Mandela and the ANC fighting apartheid as terrorists and also the Kenyan Mau Mau who fought off British colonial rule, Also the IRA which fought and won the independence of the Republic of Ireland.
Donald Trump is now also calling people vandalising Tesla dealerships domestic terrorists,
The word seems to be a convenient tool to dehumanise groups that stand up to the Western order using asymmetric tactics. This helps to create consent for massive crackdowns on wider groups which is what we’re seeing in Palestine or what my own country and others saw historically.
There’s absolutely no chance of them being disregarded as terrorists, although I’m vaguely amused by their lawyers’ assertion that the relevant UK law is so vaguely worded that (almost?) all militaries and militia would count…
No. Not just No but _Fuck No_.
That’s the moral response, but the legal one could be more complicated.
I don’t know UK law but it’s possible that their definition of “terrorism” or “terrorist group” is so broad that it would include the UK and friendly nations; if Hamas is being discriminated against (ironic, I know) then they have a legitimate legal claim.
In the US, “terrorism” domestically is explicit and objective, but “foreign terrorist organization” is decided by the Secretary of State (like the UK Foreign Minister) and is arbitrary, though if they’re on our side then they aren’t likely to be on the list — those are “Freedom Fighters”.
There’s going to be a lot of Whataboutism and false equivalencies, but the reality is that Hamas consistently commits terrorism and has stated terrorism _is part of its mission_ — it may be that other groups or nations should be labeled as “terrorists”, but under no circumstances should Hamas NOT be labeled as terrorists.
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