Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk on Wednesday submitted a formal legal application on behalf of the Palestinian group to UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, calling for her to remove its designation as a terror group, Al Jazeera reports.
Marzouk, the head of international relations and the legal office for Hamas’s political bureau, wrote in the filing that Hamas is a “Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project”.
The more than 100-page filing — which draws on 20 scholars, including former ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice John Dugard — argues that proscribing Hamas represents a violation of the UK’s obligations under international law not to be complicit in genocide.
The filing also argues that the UK’s proscription stands in breach of the group’s rights to freedom of expression and assembly and is disproportionate.
The legal team representing Marzouk, Riverway Law, argued in its own court filing that while Hamas’s actions may fit the definition of “terrorism” under UK law, so do the Israeli military’s actions, as well as those of Ukraine’s army and the UK military.
“The client’s application situates the significance of bringing such an application in the UK due to the historic and continued role the British government has played in the dispossession of the Palestinian people,” the firm said in a post on X.
