By: Sayid Marcos Tenório
On November 19, Great Britain’s Secretary of the Interior Priti Patel announced on her Twitter account that she had designated the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) as a “terrorist”. This allegation will be used to equate “support for Hamas”, “support for Gaza”, “support for Palestine” or “support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement” to crimes. This is more an attempt to stop pro-Palestinian activism and punish peaceful activism and humanitarian work.
In addition to being hypocritical, the statement that Hamas is “fundamentally and radically anti-Semitic” is in total disagreement with most of the Palestinian people, who oppose the Israeli occupation and gave Hamas the majority of votes in the last legislative elections held in 2006, electing 74 of the 132 seats in parliament. Had this year’s elections not been unilaterally cancelled by President Mahmoud Abbas at the behest of “Israel”, Hamas would have won once again.
The Palestinian people strongly rejected this designation and deserved a show of solidarity from all Palestinian political and military organizations, who spoke out in support of Hamas stating that “The Palestinian people and their political and national forces are united in rejecting and condemning the British designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization.”
Great Britain was effectively the one who gave life to the Zionist project and remains the defender of the colonial occupation of “Israel” in Palestine. It was through the infamous letter of the British Foreign Secretary James Balfour to the leader of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild in 1917 that the British Empire declared itself in favour of the establishment of such a “national home” for the Jews in Palestine.
Due to the responsibility taken in the partition process through the Palestine Partition Plan approved in 1947, which handed over 52% of the territory of Historic Palestine to European immigrants illegally and unfairly, it is no exaggeration to say that Great Britain is the most responsible for the catastrophe (Nakba) of the Palestinians and is complicit in the Zionist process of ethnic cleansing.
The British heavily supported the terrorists of the Jewish gangs Haganah, Stern, and Irgun, who were responsible for the terrorist attack that exploded the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946, where family members and British government employees lived, killing 91 people and injuring 45. The mastermind behind the attack was Menachem Begin, who later became Israeli Prime Minister. It is no accident that the Zionists have turned “Israel” into a terrorist base against the Palestinian nation and neighbouring countries.
After the partition, the British handed over power in Palestine to the Zionists, including their military bases, vehicles, weapons, and ammunition, which were added to the modern equipment provided by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the Socialist Bloc under pressure from the Party Communist from “Israel”.
On December 19, 1947, the Zionist leaders and the Soviet Union signed an agreement for the supply of armaments, ratified in New York between Moshe Sherlak representing the Zionists and Chancellor Andrei Gromyko for the USSR. The armament was handed over to Zionist militias by Czechoslovakia, which was under occupation by the Soviet army.
The resistance of the Palestinian people against the occupation is not terrorism, but a right exercised based on International and Humanitarian Law, the United Nations Charter, and several resolutions of the United Nations (UN), including those of No. 2649/1970, 2787/1971 and 3103/1974, which recognize the legitimacy of the struggle to resist by peoples under colonial and foreign domination using all the means at their disposal, whether stones, rifles or rockets and drones.
Minister Patel justified his banning order by saying it is vital to protecting the UK Jewish community and fighting anti-Semitism. This stance is unreasonable, as it is known that Hamas does not have formal activities in the UK. Therefore, it’s hard to believe that this resistance movement poses any kind of threat to the Jewish community, wherever that may be. Designating Hamas as “terrorists” effectively means labelling the Palestinians as “terrorists”, which makes no sense at all.
The charge of anti-Semitism is very convenient and useful when arguments are lacking and as a way of intimidating Israel’s critics and diverting attention from the real problems of the occupation. Hamas categorically states in its program (2017) that its fight is against “the Zionist project, not the Jews because of their religion. Hamas is not fighting against the Jews because they are Jews, but it is fighting against the Zionists occupying Palestine.”
Hamas is not a “terrorist movement”, but a political party with a legal existence, recognized by the Palestinian people and internationally. It is a genuine and integral component of the Palestinian national liberation movement, and the false designation given by Minister Priti Patel, one of the most fanatical supporters of Israel in the British government, is not appropriate.
The Zionist lobby puts pressure on the British because it knows that the Palestinian resistance, led by Hamas, has registered a lot of political and military progress, and gained international support, while the occupation is in decline in the eyes of the world, no longer able to hide its crimes of genocide and apartheid committed against Palestinians.
Zionists are pressing Britain, the United States, and other countries to sanction the Palestinians because they know that Hamas will not change its position on the liberation of Palestine and the status of Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital and ecumenical city of humanity. Since it wants to be fair, why does Great Britain not stand for the punishment of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Zionists against the Palestinian people?
Resistance is a right on which Palestinians do not give up. It is a legitimate right of Palestinians against occupation and repeated human rights violations as well as war crimes by “Israel”. The Palestinian people will continue to exercise this legitimate right until the terrorist Zionist occupation is expelled from Palestine.
Sayid Marcos Tenório is a historian and specialist in International Relations. He is vice president of the Brazil-Palestine Institute (Ibraspal) and author of the book Palestina: do mito da terra prometida à terra da resistência [Palestine: the myth of the promised land to the land of resistance] (Anita Garibaldi/Ibraspal, 2019, 412 p).
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