Hamas launches legal fight to overturn Australia’s terrorist designation

Australia has ruled that Hamas’s military wing operates within the group’s broader structure, citing substantial overlap between its political and military leadership.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

Hamas has taken legal action to overturn Australia’s decision to proscribe the Palestinian Islamist organization as a terrorist group, challenging a designation that has remained in place despite Hamas’s failed attempt to reverse it months ago.

According to local media reports, Hamas is asking Australia’s Federal Court to invalidate the regulations placing the entire organization on the country’s terrorist list or, alternatively, to compel the federal government to reconsider its application to have the designation revoked.

Australian authorities initially designated Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization in November 2003.

Then, more than a year before the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Australian government expanded its designation in March 2022 to cover the entire organization, including its so-called political wing.

Federal Court documents obtained by the Herald Sun show Hamas’s initial effort to be delisted was rejected in July last year, and a fresh bid lodged in November had not been decided, prompting the new legal action.

With its latest legal bid, Hamas is once again disputing the decision to classify its political, administrative, and military branches as a single terrorist entity, arguing that the group’s broader operations in Gaza also include healthcare, education, water provision, disability services, and other forms of civilian assistance.

The internationally designated terrorist group also maintains that it poses no direct threat to Australia, while rejecting responsibility for every death and incident linked to the Oct. 7 atrocities.

The Australian government has previously determined that Hamas’s military wing operates within the organization’s broader structure, pointing to substantial overlap between its political and military leadership as evidence that the two cannot be treated as separate entities.

Officials can legally designate an organization as a terrorist group when there are reasonable grounds to believe it is directly or indirectly involved in preparing for, planning, assisting, or promoting terrorist acts, or advocating their commission.

Under Australian law, the designation makes it a criminal offense to lead or join a proscribed organization, recruit members, provide training or funding, or knowingly offer certain forms of support, with some offenses carrying prison sentences of up to 25 years, while allowing exceptions for humanitarian assistance and legal representation.

Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler has sharply denounced Hamas’s renewed legal challenge, insisting the group has no grounds to be removed from Australia’s terrorist list and warning that overturning the designation would send a dangerous message.

“Hamas can engage as many lawyers as it likes, but no amount of legal argument can erase the atrocities of Oct. 7,” Leibler told the Herald Sun.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin also condemned Hamas’s renewed court bid, calling it a troubling escalation of anti-Israel activism in Australia and warning that it could undermine efforts to curb support for the terrorist group.

“Not satisfied with vilifying Israelis and Jewish Australians, they now seek to defend Hamas in the courts,” Ryvchin said in a statement. “The effect of this would be to allow Australians to donate money to Hamas and publicly support it.”

“While there is no prospect of this action succeeding, the very fact that any Australian lawyers would seek to bring this action denigrates the profession and shows the malice and fanaticism running through the anti-Israel movement,” he added.

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