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Palestinian resistance group Hamas made a legal filing in London on Wednesday, seeking to have the group removed from the UK’s list of proscribed terror organizations and to have its struggle against Israeli occupation recognized as legitimate.
The application was submitted by Mousa Abu Marzouk, head of Hamas’s foreign relations office in Doha, who has held various senior positions in the movement since helping to found it in 1987.
“Hamas does not and never has posed a threat to Britain, despite its ongoing complicity in the genocide of our people. It is perhaps out of colonial guilt that Britain fears one day those it oppresses will strike back against the sponsors of the Zionist entity,” Marzouk stated in a witness statement as part of the legal filing.
He added, “Hamas is not a terrorist group […] We also look outward for inspiration from the glorious tradition of all those peoples and groups who have resisted colonialism, occupation, and imperialism in the name of justice, dignity, and human equality.
Hamas’s military wing, the Al Qassam Brigade, was proscribed by the UK in 2001, with its political wing later added to the list in 2021. The UK government has since dismissed the distinction between the two branches, calling Hamas a “complex but single terrorist organisation.”
Marzouk criticized the British government’s decision, stating it was not only unjust but also indicative of its enduring support for Zionism and apartheid in Palestine over the past century.
While Hamas did not deny that its actions fall within the wide definition of ‘terrorism’ under the UK’s Terrorism Act 2000, the group pointed out that the same definition applies to any group that uses violence for political purposes, including the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), the Ukrainian army, and even the British armed forces.
The filing also includes a witness statement explaining the events of October 7, 2023, noting that Hamas aimed to achieve “specific military objectives” and issued clear instructions not to target women, children, or the elderly.
Hamas also expressed its willingness to cooperate with the International Criminal Court and any neutral third party, a stance it maintained following the ICC’s issuing of arrest warrants in November 2024 against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Palestinian military commander Mohammed Deif, who has since been killed by Israel.
Hamas lauded the ICC’s decision as an “important step toward justice,” while Israel dismissed the war crimes accusations and continues to evade international law by traveling to countries that refuse to uphold these warrants.
The Palestinian group was founded in 1987 during the First Intifada as a response to escalating Israeli violence. Initially part of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas later severed ties to operate independently. The Qassam Brigade was established in 1992 to engage in armed resistance against Israeli occupation.
Hamas’s 2017 charter clearly states that its struggle is against the Israeli state and the Zionist movement due to their occupation of Palestine, not against the Jewish people—an accusation often raised by those avoiding discussion of the dire conditions Palestinians face under a brutal settler-occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing.
