Quote Originally Posted by jon1959 View Post
Another comment on proscription: Hamas's military wing was proscribed by the UK government in 2001. The whole of Hamas (that is the whole civil structure that was embedded in Gaza and provided administrative, policing, financial, sewerage/water/power jobs) was not proscribed until 2021.

What changed between 2001 and 2021?

One thing that changed was that Priti Patel became Home Secretary after being forced to resign in 2017 for running a private foreign policy that involved secret meetings in Israel with the Netanyahu government.

Call me cynical but I believe that the decision in 2021 to proscribe the whole of Hamas (and labelling everyone associated with them in any way as terrorist) was done at the request of Benjamin Netanyahu, not because some objective assessment had changed.

But it enables Netanyahu to label doctors and journalists as terrorists, and for you to be a little echo of that! Thankfully the majority of the world refuses to go down that route.
Slipping into conspiracy theories here Jon. They are prescribed by the EU too, which I am pretty sure don't listen to Priti Patel.

Hamas did kill hundreds of innocent people at a festival. They do believe in the destruction of Israel, they are deeply racist Holocaust deniers. The history of the conflict didn't begin when you said it did, and whilst there is always complex back stories, the law is the law, no?

We can all argue that one group or other should or shouldn't be proscribed, just as people can argue a slap is or isn't assault, or drink sex is or isn't consensual etc etc etc. I think in giving some of the context you are absolutely right, but that doesn't change the law.

The law is where the law is. We have enough accusations of "two tier" justice as it is, and now you seem to be flirting with the idea of treating some differently? Apologies If I've misinterpreted that. If an influential figure on the right - Say Tommy Robinson - held up the flag of a banned far-right group and told his adoring fans to kill MPs (even if he said it was in jest) and said "Up [that group]" etc we all know you would have a very different view on it.