UK Foreign Office: Hamas is ‘moderate’, Israel is ‘white settler colonialist nation’

UK civil servants taught at seminar that Hamas terror organization is essential to Gaza’s future while Israel is a white colonialist nation.

By World Israel News Staff

Britain’s Foreign Office is under fire after it hosted an event teaching its civil servants that the Hamas terror organization is a “moderate” faction essential to the future of the Gaza Strip, while criticizing Israel as a “colonialist” white nation state.

According to a report by the London-based Jewish Chronicle, last Wednesday, the UK’s Foreign Office held a seminar for staff members, including those specializing in the Middle East, at the Foreign Office’s diplomatic service headquarters in London.

The 75-minute seminar, titled “Israel/Gaza: What Next for Hamas,” featured talks by four academics, led by Professor Jeroen Gunning of King’s College London, during which attendees were taught that Hamas, the Islamist terror group which seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, is “moderate,” and that there is “no future without Hamas” in the coastal enclave.

During the lectures, Israel was described as a “white, settler colonialist nation,” while the speakers urged Foreign Office employees not to apply the “terrorist label” to Hamas, saying it was “unhelpful,” and emphasizing the need to “engage with” the “political wing” of Hamas.

Dr. Tristan Dunning, a lecturer from University of Queensland in Australia, accusing Israel of “stealing land” from Palestinian Arabs.

“I know all about white, settler colonialism and stealing land from the native population.”

Dunning also defended Hamas massacres of Israelis and other atrocities committed on October 7^th as “resistance” against Israeli “occupation.”

Arab terrorists held in Israeli prisons were compared to Israeli captives taken hostage by Gaza terrorists, and were described as “hostages, too.”

The four lecturers, including Dr. Anas Iqtait of the Australian National University in Canberra and Dr. Martin Kear of the University of Sydney, jointly penned a letter to the British Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee, accusing Israel of “genocide” for its response to the October 7^th massacres, while saying Britain was partially accountable for the “genocide.”

“Coupled with the UK’s continued support for the Israeli government, including the licensing of arms components used in the current bombardment, [this] could make the UK complicit in war crimes committed during Israel’s punitive war on Gaza, including potentially the charge of genocide.”

On Tuesday, following criticism of the lecturer’s comments on Hamas, the Foreign Office disavowed the statements made at last week’s seminar.

“The UK Government’s position is unequivocal that Hamas is a terrorist organization,” a Foreign Office spokesman said. “Many of the views expressed by the academics in the seminar were wrong and contrary to the government’s position.

“We have a zero-tolerance approach to any form of discrimination, including antisemitism. We are reviewing guidance on internal seminars to ensure speakers invited are appropriate.”