Hamas 'poses no threat to UK' claims lawyer fighting to remove group from terror list
A lawyer who is representing Hamas, for free, has told LBC the group should no longer be named a "terror organisation" by the British government.
Listen to this article
Franck Magennis, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers, is arguing that Hamas should be removed from the UK's list of proscribed terrorist groups.
An appeal, submitted by London-based law firm Riverway Law, submitted a 106-page legal application to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, appealing against the Government’s designation of the organisation as terrorists.
The lawyer told Tom Swarbrick the group does not pose a threat British people.
"That Hamas only operates in Palestine. They don't operate in Britain at all, and they've never expressed any intention to do that," he told Tom Swarbrick.
This comes as the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick demanded that lawyers trying to remove Hamas from the list should be investigated and has called for a thorough and transparent investigation.
Yvette Cooper told LBC this morning: “Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It was a barbaric terrorist attack on October 7. Hamas has long been a terrorist organisation.
“We maintain our view about the barbaric nature of this organisation.”
Read More: Iran holds 'indirect' talks with US over nuclear programme - with 'more to come next week'
Read More: Elderly British couple imprisoned by Taliban have faced 29 'interrogations' since imprisonment
Swarbrick pointed out that British citizens serve in the Israeli military.
Mr Magennis replied: "Israel is an ethnostate that chooses to self-racialize and describe itself as the Jewish state and because it illegitimately claims a mandate to speak on behalf of all Jews.
"And it gives all Jews a right to return there and serve in its military, so it's the case that Israeli soldiers have British citizenship."
He added: "The point is that they don't have any operations in the geographical territory of Britain.
"And the reason I chose the example of British soldiers who choose to go on serve in a military while it commits a genocide is that by your logic the fact that Palestinians exercise their rights to self defence and to use armed force in self defence under international law to shoot at British people who are serving in the Israeli military."
Emily Damari is a British-Israeali who was shot and taken hostage during the October 7 attacks.
Swarbrick said: "You have written the claim that Hamas poses no threat to UK people and there is clearly evidence that Hamas does pose a threat to at least one British Israeli citizen, Emily Damari, who was not there fighting against Hamas or part of the Israeli military.
"She was an innocent person who was taken from a music festival, shot twice in captivity by the people that you are choosing to represent for free."
Mr Magennis asked for the interview to be centred around "Palestinian humanity and dignity" as they are "facing a genocide".
The appeal claims the ban breaches Hamas supporters’ human rights under the ECHR by ‘unlawfully restricting’ their freedom of speech and right to protest.
It says Hamas poses “no threat to the UK people”, and that banning it breaches Britain’s obligations under international law to be “not complicit in a genocide.”
Dame Priti Patel outlawed Hamas in its entirety by adding its political wing to the list. The military arm of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, were proscribed two decades earlier.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said the claim should be dismissed, saying: “The fact lawyers are seriously arguing our weak human rights laws could be twisted to protect murderous terrorists shows why these laws are no longer fit for purpose.
“Human rights laws should protect our citizens, not foreign criminals and possibly even terrorists.”
The effort to have Hamas removed from the list is being fronted by Dr Mousa Abu Marzouk, Hamas’s head of international relations and its legal office
The lawyers involved in the case have said Hamas has not paid them or the experts and lawyers who provided evidence for its submission, as it was illegal to receive funds from a group designated as a terrorist organisation.
Riverway Law said on social media that “nothing in these posts invites any individual to support, or express support for any proscribed organisation” listed by the Home Secretary under the Terrorism Act 2000. It said: “These posts are only to provide a summary of the legal application to summarise its significance.”