News

|

National Security

Australia 'must list Hamas as terrorists'

October 15, 2021

Richard Ferguson - The Australian - Friday 15 October 2021

The Islamist militia that rules Palestine’s Gaza Strip should be considered terrorists by the Australian government, a parliamentary committee says.

The joint parliamentary committee on intelligence and security on Thursday recommended listing all of Hamas – not just its paramilitary wing – as a terrorist organisation in line with the US, the EU and Canada.

Israel’s embassy in Australia welcomed the PJCIS push and called Hamas a “brutal” organisation dedicated to destroying the Jewish nation, but Australia’s biggest pro-Palestinian group said listing the ruling party of Gaza as terrorists did nothing to further peace.

The PJCIS’s recommendation to list all of Hamas as a terrorist organisation comes after the Islamist organisation fired rockets into Israel from Gaza in April.

PJCIS chairman James Paterson on Thursday said it was clear Hamas and its paramilitary wing were not separate entities and its leaders’ incitements of hatred against Jewish people met the benchmark to label them terrorists.

‘The expert evidence provided to the committee overwhelmingly rejected the idea that Hamas’s Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operates independently … There was agreement Hamas operates as a singular entity with overlapping personnel, finances and structure,” he said.

“In addition, leaders of Hamas have repeatedly made statements which meet the advocacy test for terrorist listing, including direct incitement of acts of violence against Jewish people.”

At present, Australia recognises only its paramilitary wing – the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades – as a terrorist group.

The PJCIS has also recommended continuing to recognise East African Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab, Pakistani Islamist terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the socialist Kurdistan Workers’ Party as terror groups.

Recent News

All Posts