Hamas urges UK court to remove terror label; its lawyers claim British army also fits ‘terrorism’ definition

Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk has submitted a lengthy witness statement to a British court, arguing that London should remove its proscription of Hamas as a terror group.

The Palestinian group claims to be “a Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project,” in a filing reported by the Drop Site News outlet.

Hamas openly seeks to destroy Israel, regularly attempts to target random Israeli civilians, and led thousands of terrorists who systematically killed and kidnapped Israelis of all ages, including civilians at their homes and at a music festival, as well as British nationals on October 7, 2023.

Abu Marzouk claims the onslaught was solely directed at military targets, falsely asserting that the targeting of civilians that day was marginable or done mainly by non-Hamas members.

He accuses Britain of complicity in the Israeli “genocide” against Palestinians by arming Israel, and claims it poses no threat to the United Kingdom.

A legal team representing Hamas pro bono — since it would be illegal to receive money from the group — claims in its own filing that while Hamas’s actions fit the definition of “terrorism” in British law, so do those of the IDF, the Ukrainian army and even the British military.

According to The Guardian, Britain’s Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel said: “Hamas is an evil Iranian-backed terrorist organization, which kidnaps, tortures and murders people, including British nationals. They pose an ongoing threat to our security and to the peace and stability of the Middle East and they have weapons and training facilities that put lives at risk and threaten our interests. They show no respect for human rights, life and dignity and have oppressed people living in Gaza for too long.”