Situation Report: UK moves to fully designate Hamas as a terror organization

On November 19, the United Kingdom’s Home Secretary Priti Patel announced her plan to officially proscribe Hamas as a terrorist organization. Since 2001, the military arm of Hamas has been designated a terror group by the UK. Patel’s policy change will outlaw the organization’s political wing as well. In a tweet,Patel referred to Hamas’ “significant terrorist capability, including access to extensive and sophisticated weaponry, as well as terrorist training facilities” to justify this designation. The British parliament is expected to pass this proposed designation before the new year.

Designating Hamas’ political wing, if approved by Parliament, would make it a criminal offense to belong to or support the organization. Those found guilty of violating the ban could face a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

Fully outlawing Hamas will bring the UK up to speed with the U.S., Israel and the European Union, where Hamas is already fully proscribed.  Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz voicedhis support for Patel’s plan, adding that it “sends a strong message of zero tolerance toward terrorist activities aimed at harming the State of Israel and Jewish communities.”

Hamas immediately denounced Patel’s proposal as showing “absolute bias toward the Israeli occupation,” calling it a “submission to Israeli blackmail and dictations.” According to Reuters, Hamas also said that “Resisting occupation by all available means, including armed resistance, is a right granted to people under occupation as stated by the international law.”

From their founding, Hamas has never accepted the notion that its “wings” represent separate organizations or a difference in policy. As Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin noted in 1998 and cited by the U.S. Treasury Departmentin a 2003 designation of Hamas leaders, “We cannot separate the wing from the body.   If we do so, the body will not be able to fly. HAMAS is one body.”

Hamas is a Palestinian jihadist terror organization that vows to obliterate Israel’s existence. The group has dominated the Gaza Strip since it seized control from the Palestinian Authority (PA) in a violent coup in 2007. Hamas’ tactic include using human shields and civilian structuresin conflict. During the recent May 2021 Gaza-Israel flare-up, Hamas launched thousands of indiscriminate rocket attacks targeting civilian areas in Israel. Two decades earlier, during the second Palestinian uprising, Hamas killed hundreds of Israelis in a barrageof suicide bombings.

Iran, an effective user of proxy warfare across the Middle East, supplies weapons and funds to Hamas. In fact, the link connecting Tehran to Gaza’s arsenal is well documented. In a translated video published by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a Hamas official disclosed that the terror group’s weapons are bought with Iranian money, their activities are supervised by Iranian experts, and their weapons all have the Iranian signatures. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh outright thanked Iran for its money and weapons.