IHRC is urging the Home Secretary to immediately deproscribe all pro-Palestine resistance groups to help end the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza and the intensified aggression against Lebanon.

Since its invasion of Gaza last October Israel has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, 70% of them women and children, and wounded more than twice as many more. In the space of just a couple of weeks it has also killed 2000 people in Lebanon.

While Israel carries out this unconscionable slaughter of mainly civilians, the British government refuses to support the right of the victims to protect themselves and fight back.

Not only is the government failing in its duty to try and halt the genocide but it is also enabling the slaughter under the pretext of upholding Israel’s right to self-defence. It is a shocking indictment of a western hegemonic world order that views the lives of Muslims and non-whites as less valuable.

The proscriptions of Hamas and Hizbullah, among others, are a key component of policies that weaponise anti-terrorism legislation to allow governments to wage illegal and unpopular wars, mainly against Muslims.

“This has only been made possible by the manufacturing of dehumanising narratives against the likes of Hamas and Hizbullah to garner public support for what are essentially war crimes, allowing governments to carry out atrocities under the pretext of fighting terrorism. Put simply, proscriptions work to demonise popular resistance groups and the people they represent, and in so doing legitimise white supremacist violence against Muslims”, says the letter.

Both Hamas and Hizbullah are proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000 which confers upon the Home Secretary the power to ban groups that are believed to be concerned in terrorism. Critics say it is a blunt political tool designed to advance government policy rather than protect the public from terrorism.

The letter also calls on the government to impose immediate sanctions against the Israeli regime to force it to halt the genocide.

The full letter is available to read here.

[ENDS]

For more information or comment please contact the Press Office on (+44) 208 904 0222  or (+44) 7958 522196 or email media@ihrc.org
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IHRC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
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