CFI Officer Bob Blackman pointed out in FCO Questions today in Parliament that 5 of the 15 Hamas Political Bureau have personally been designated as terrorists by the UK or US governments, but only Hamas’s military wing is proscribed in the UK.
The Harrow East Conservative asked: “Is it not time that we proscribe the entirety of Hamas as a terrorist organisation” and asked whether the Minister would agree that “until Hamas renounce violence and celebrate peace and bring peace to the Middle East, there will never be a peaceful solution between Israel and the Palestinians”.
Minister for the Middle East, Rt. Hon. Dr Andrew Murrison MP, said in response that “we proscribe the military element of Hamas and we have a policy of non-engagement with Hamas in its entirety”.
He underlined: “Until Hamas sets its face against violence, until it accepts the quartet principles and until it engages with the political process, it will be outside the tent”.
In February this year, the Government proscribed Hezbollah as a terror group in its entirety, in a landmark decision.
