Rights group files second legal challenge to remove Hamas from UK terror list
A Palestinian man waves the green flag of Hamas during a demonstration outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on 3 July 2015
Areeb Ullah reports in Middle East Eye on 10 June 2025:
A British rights group has filed a second legal application calling on the UK government to remove the Palestinian militant group Hamas from a list of proscribed terrorist organisations.
Cage International said on Tuesday it had instructed lawyers to appeal the decision in 2021 by former UK Home Secretary Priti Patel to proscribe Hamas in its entirety.
The proscription of Hamas predates its current war with Israel in Gaza, where the group has been the de facto authority since winning Palestinian elections in 2006, and the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel in October 2023.
Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, was proscribed by the UK more than two decades ago. But Patel decided to extend the ban to the whole organisation, arguing there was no longer a distinction between the political and military wings of the group.
Proscribing a group as a terrorist organisation automatically creates several criminal offences for anyone who is a group member, who wears or publishes the group’s symbols, expresses or invites support for the group, or organises a meeting to support it.
Section 4 of the UK Terrorism Act allows any person affected by an organisation’s proscription to apply to the home secretary for its de-proscription.
Cage, an advocacy group that campaigns on behalf of people affected by counterterrorism policies, is using this clause to lodge its application over concerns its clients, who are mostly British Muslims, have been disproportionately targeted in an “unjust, politically charged manner” as a consequence of Hamas being added to the list of banned organisations.
As part of its submission, Cage included 26 case studies involving clients who, it says, have been adversely impacted by the proscription of Hamas. These cases span a wide range of public and professional settings and highlight what the group describes as the overreach of counterterror legislation.