UN says funding cuts threaten health of 13 mn displaced

LONDON: Hamas has submitted a legal filing in Britain demanding it be removed from the government’s list of proscribed terror groups.

The organization is arguing that it is a “Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project,” and not a terrorist group.

The claim includes a witness statement by Mousa Abu Marzouk, Hamas’s head of international relations and the applicant for the filing. It was submitted to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

Abu Marzouk’s statement said: “The British government’s decision to proscribe Hamas is an unjust one that is symptomatic of its unwavering support for Zionism, apartheid, occupation and ethnic cleansing in Palestine for over a century.

“Hamas does not and never has posed a threat to Britain, despite the latter’s ongoing complicity in the genocide of our people.”

The UK proscribed Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, in 2001, and added its political wing to the list of terror organizations in 2021.

At the time, the government described the distinction between the two wings as “artificial” and said Hamas was a “complex but single terrorist organization.” Support for proscribed organizations is a criminal offense in Britain.

Hamas’s legal team at Riverway Law, which is representing the organization pro brono because it is illegal to receive funds from proscribed groups, sent a document to Drop Site News summarizing its arguments.

The team said: “Hamas does not deny that its actions fall within the wide definition of ‘terrorism’ under the Terrorism Act 2000.

“Instead, it notes that the definition also covers all groups and organizations around the world that use violence to achieve political objectives, including the Israeli armed forces, the Ukrainian army and indeed the British armed forces.”

The team added: “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.

“People in Britain must be free to speak about Hamas and its struggle to restore to the Palestinian people the right to self-determination.”

Hamas is the “only effective military force resisting” Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, the team said, highlighting Britain’s obligations under international law to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity.

The proscription is also disproportionate as Hamas “does not pose any threat to Britain or British citizens,” the team added.

Hamas’s presence on the list of terrorist organizations is hindering its ability to broker a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the lawyers said.

Riverway Law’s director, Fahad Ansari, is leading the legal challenge. He is being helped by Daniel Grutters, a barrister at One Pump Court Chambers, and Franck Magennis, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers.

In December 2020, Magennis said: “Zionism is a kind of racism. It is essentially colonial. It has manifested in an apartheid regime calling itself ‘the Jewish state’ that dominates non-Jews, and particularly Palestinians.”

The Home Office said it does not comment on proscription cases. Deproscription is rare in the UK, with just four groups having been removed from the list of terrorist organizations.

Grutters represented pro-Palestinian students who set up a camp at the London School of Economics last May, the Daily Telegraph reported. The students were barred by the university through a court order.

Cooper said the government will reject Hamas’s appeal, and “maintains its view” that the group is a “barbaric terrorist organization.”

Priti Patel, the former home secretary who expanded Hamas’s proscription on the terror list in 2021, said the “evil” group still poses an “ongoing threat” to British national security.

“Those campaigning to end the proscription of Hamas fail to understand the seriousness of the threats and danger this terrorist organization poses,” she added.

The Taliban’s morality police have detained men and their barbers over hairstyles, and others for missing prayers at mosques during Ramadan, a UN report said Thursday, 6 months after laws regulating people’s conduct came into effect.
The Vice and Virtue Ministry published laws last August covering many aspects everyday life in Afghanistan, including public transport, music, shaving and celebrations. Most notably, the ministry issued a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public.
That same month, a top UN official warned the laws provided a “distressing vision” for the country’s future by adding to existing employment, education, and dress code restrictions on women and girls. Taliban officials have rejected UN concerns about the morality laws.
Thursday’s report, from the UN mission in Afghanistan, said in the first 6 months of the laws’ implementation, over half of detentions made under it concerned “either men not having the compliant beard length or hairstyle, or barbers providing non-compliant beard trimming or haircuts.”
The report said that the morality police regularly detained people arbitrarily “without due process and legal protections.”
During the holy fasting month of Ramadan, men’s attendance at mandated congregational prayers was closely monitored, leading at times to arbitrary detention of those who didn’t show up, the report added.
The UN mission said that both sexes were negatively affected, particularly people with small businesses such as private education centers, barbers and hairdressers, tailors, wedding caterers and restaurants, leading to a reduction or total loss of income and employment opportunities.
The direct and indirect socio-economic effects of the laws’ implementation were likely to compound Afghanistan’s dire economic situation, it said. A World Bank study has assessed that authorities’ ban on women from education and work could cost the country over $1.4 billion per year.
The Taliban leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has emphasized the primacy of Islamic law and the role of the Ministry of Vice and Virtue in reforming Afghan society and its people.
In a message issued ahead of the religious Eid Al-Fitr festival that marks the end of Ramadan, Akhundzada said it was necessary “to establish a society free from corruption and trials, and to prevent future generations from becoming victims of misguided beliefs, harmful practices and bad morals.”
More than 3,300 mostly male inspectors are tasked with informing people about the law and enforcing it, according to the report.
Nobody from the Vice and Virtue Ministry was immediately available for comment about the report.