FINALLY: After Years of Inaction, the UK Declares Hamas a Terrorist organization

In another major development, Australia blacklists Hezbollah in its entirety!

By Nosson Shulman: Licensed Tour Guide of VIP Israel Tours & Authentic Virtual Tours (click here to check out his free trailer videos)

In a surprising move, the UK has just blacklisted the entirety of Hamas as a terror organization. The astonishing part isn’t that Britain, an Israeli “ally”, is making this sensible move, but rather that they had not already. Although the British government had long ago declared the military wing of the group a terrorist entity, its political wing was not.

Britain was not the only country that differentiated between Hamas’ political and military wings. Countries such as Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and Paraguay have only outlawed Hamas’ armed forces, claiming that the political wing carries out important civil society functions like charity, humanitarian projects and building of infrastructure in Gaza, and therefore should not be sanctioned on that end. Those opposed to this idea are quick to point out the fallacy from both a moral and practical point of view. Morally both wings have the same goal, the utter destruction of the Jewish State and its inhabitants and cannot be considered separate entities (as a comparison, no decent person would ever even consider funding the “political wing” of the mafia or racial supremacy groups like the KKK, Neo-Nazi movement and Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam regardless of the social service programs they were offering).

From a practical perspective, once countries and private donors give money to the “political wing” of Hamas, the money can “find” it’s way to the military wing (indeed, this arrangement often allows Hamas to by-pass sanctions against it). Even where there is oversight on how the money is spent, Hamas uses the money to build schools encouraging a life of Jihad, establishing community centers where weapons of the “military wing” can be stored in the basement, funding “certain science and technology (i.e., weapon building)” university programs in Gaza and paying terrorists who are sitting in Israeli prisons.

It’s not just the money. Because the “political wing” members aren’t sanctioned, influential citizens and politicians can meet with them, giving them legitimacy. The policy has led to hundreds of very powerful institutions (like the UN and universities) and NGOs to hire terrorists (many of them who have spent time in Israeli prisons) who in turn hire more Hamas members. Once in a position of power, they use their positions to recruit would-be terrorists to the organization and also lobby countries to apply pressure on Israel to free convicted terrorists.

The UK’s sanctions represent a major blow to Hamas. Besides the UK being a major source of funding for the terrorist group, politicians like Jeremy Corbyn (the former head of Labor who famously called members of Hezbollah and Hamas his “Friends”) meet with them, granting them a certain air of legitimacy. Today that is illegal and if Jeremy Corbyn were to meet with his “friends” from the group, he could spend the next 14 years in prison.

It needs to be pointed out that the political wing isn’t immune to using direct violence to obtain their goals (even without the help of the military wing). Indeed, the most recent terrorist attack in Jerusalem (in which a 26-year-old civilian was shot and killed in cold blood, 2 officers injured, and a Rabbi (and father of 8) still dressed in his prayer shawl was shot and miraculously survived the attack) was committed by a senior member of the political wing.

In another important development, Australia has blacklisted Hezbollah’s political wing, which now makes association with any part of the terror group punishable by up to 25 years in prison. This represents a major blow to the organization, especially as Australia has a large Lebanese community. Other countries which have banned Hezbollah in its entirety include Canada, United States, Argentina, Bahrain, Columbia, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Japan, Paraguay, Serbia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. International Arab organizations like the Arab League and Gulf Cooperation council have also labeled the entire group terrorists. Surprisingly, the European Union currently considers the political wing of Hezbollah to be legitimate, although individual member countries like Germany, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Austria, and Slovenia have blacklisted the terror organization in its entirety.

Nosson Shulman is a journalist and Licensed Tour Guide in Israel specializing in Biblical tours. To allow tourists to experience Israel during the Corona era, he created the new hit Israel tour video series which brings Israel to the home of viewers by simulating actual tours. To check out his free sneak preview tour videos, click here. To view sample tour itineraries or to inquire about private tour opportunities with a personalized itinerary on your next trip to Israel, click here.