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The Islamist Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas has today become a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK in its entirety, following Parliament’s approval of an Order which was laid in Parliament last Friday.
The Home Office said in a statement: “This means that members of Hamas or those who invite support for the group could be jailed for up to 14 years. The terror group’s listing has been amended in the list of proscribed organisations to reflect this change”.
Last Friday, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced that the UK will proscribe Hamas as a terrorist organisation in its entirety, confirming that the UK “can no longer disaggregate” the group’s so-called military and political wings. The UK proscribed Hamas’s military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades, in 2001, but the designation did not extend to the terror group’s political arm. The Home Secretary said that the current listing of Hamas “creates an artificial distinction between various parts of the organisation”.
In a House of Commons debate this week, Conservative MPs hailed the Home Secretary’s decision, and the move has been strongly welcomed in Israel. Among MPs to welcome the move in Parliament included CFI Vice-Chairman Andrew Percy MP, Rt. Hon. Robert Jenrick MP, Rt. Hon. Mark Harper MP, Tom Hunt MP, and Christian Wakeford MP.
Mr Jenrick sent condolences during his speech to the family of Eli Kay, a 26 year old tour guide murdered in the Old City of Jerusalem by a member of Hamas’s ‘political wing’ last week. He said: “That one young man’s brutal, unexpected and unexplainable death goes some way to explain why we as a country need to be proscribing the whole of the organisation that that murderer, that terrorist belonged to”.
He emphasised: “We cannot accommodate terrorism. When someone uses the slaughter of innocent people to advance a political cause or a supposed political cause, at that point that cause becomes immoral and unjust, and they and the organisation that they stand for have to be eliminated from serious debate and serious discussion”.
Minister for Security Rt. Hon. Damian Hinds underlined during the debate that the Government “condemns Hamas’s indiscriminate and abhorrent rocket attacks and remains resolute in our commitment to Israel’s security”.
Writing in Ynet this week, the UK’s Ambassador to Israel H.E. Neil Wigan stressed that Hamas’ political and military wings are “two sides of the same coin” and condemned the organisation’s indiscriminate rocket fire.
CFI welcomed the “hugely important” decision last week. CFI Parliamentary Chairmen, Rt. Hon. Stephen Crabb MP (Commons) and Rt. Hon. The Lord Pickles (Lords) and CFI Honorary President Lord Polak CBE said: “The Home Secretary’s decision to proscribe Hamas in its entirety is hugely important. The Hamas terror group is not only a threat to the State of Israel, but presents a threat to Jewish communities around the world, including at home in the UK. The Conservative Government has again demonstrated its commitment to stamping out Antisemitism, protecting the Jewish community and supporting Israel”.
The UK has now joined Israel, the United States, Canada, and the European Union in proscribing Hamas in full.
