EU court adviser recommends Hamas be removed from terrorist list
In a move towards advancing the prospect of a two-state, Israel / Palestinian solution, the advocate general of the European Union (EU) has recommended that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) remove Hamas, the militant Palestinian political organization that rules the Gaza Strip, from the EU’s terrorist list.
The EU terrorist list, which was established by the European Council after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001, includes a number of organizations like the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Hizbullah in Lebanon. Hamas’s military wing was first put on the list in 2001 with the addition of its political faction in 2003.
“(The possible decision) is part of a bigger picture that if nothing is going to happen, we, as the EU, are going to take unilateral measures,” Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow at Chatham House and a professor at Regents University in London, told The Media Line. “There are a lot of smaller measures that have a cumulative effect of recognizing Palestine as a state and this is a signal to Israel that the current situation can’t survive forever.”
Some Israelis view the EU with suspicion, especially as they fund Palestinian development in the West Bank, and see this attempt at removing Hamas from the terrorist list as another way in which the EU is promoting Palestinian self-determination and independence.
Hamas –an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (Islamic Resistance Movement) – was founded in 1987 during the first intifada, which was a series of attacks by Palestinians, by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who established the organization as a local political arm of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic militant group. The organization, led by Khaled Mashal, has ruled the Gaza Strip since winning elections in 2006.
“Hamas was first put on the list because they are a terrorist organization,” Emmanuel Nahson, a spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. “And, this has been demonstrated time and time again.”
There is a Hamas Charter, Nahson added, which outlines that the main goals of Hamas are to establish a Shari’a-based regime for all of Palestine and the destruction of Israel.
According to Shadi Othman, the communication and information officer for the office of the European Union in the West Bank and Gaza, Hamas petitioned the European Court to remove them from the list in 2014.
In response, the ECJ ruled that Hamas should be taken off of the terrorist list. The court decided that officials were creating policies based on news reports and internet findings instead of legal reasoning when determining the status of Hamas and the Gaza Strip. The EU council appealed that decision and, this month, the advocate general court advisor has recommended that the original court decision to remove Hamas from the list remain.
“They should, actually, remove Hamas from the list because it is not a terrorist organization, but a liberation movement,” Ahmed Yousef, a spokesperson for Hamas told The Media Line. “Being on the list means that (the EU) is not interested in talking to Hamas. And, keeping them isolated is not good for peace and security in the region.”
“Being off the list means that the European Union is interested in opening channels with the Islamists,” Yousef added.
Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by both the EU and the United States, especially for its violent uprisings against Israel and Israeli rule in the West Bank during the first and second intifadas in the late 1990s and early 2000s, respectively.
Hamas has struggled for self-determination. Everyone around the world is fighting for their rights. For example, Algeria is not a terrorist organization because they fought the French, Yousef said.
“(The EU) looks at this in practical measures because 11 years of isolating Hamas and not recognizing it did not achieve much, it didn’t bring a better situation to Gaza and it didn’t bring down Hamas,” Mekelberg said. “So, part of the idea is to reassess and by engaging, the EU can achieve a better result.”
Analysts are hoping that if the EU does decide to remove Hamas from the terrorist list, that it will pressure Israel to include Hamas in negotiations, just as it did with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in the 1980s.
“Israel saw the PLO as a terrorist organization and used this as an argument not to negotiate with them. In 1988, after the PLO accepted Israel’s right to exist by accepting UN resolutions 242 and 338, a US presidential waiver permitted contact with the PLO and thus pressured Israel to have official contacts with the organization as well,” Liel Maghen, co-director of the Israel / Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) said.
When compared to Hamas, the EU is putting pressure on Israel to include Hamas in negotiations and to compromise, Maghen added.
According to a spokesman for the EU delegation in Tel Aviv, the EU is now awaiting the final decision of the court of justice.