Spokesman for the Palestinian Scholars to Al-Estiklal: Classifying Hamas as a Terrorist Targets Our Cause, Not the Movement

Spokesman for the Palestine Scholars Association Abroad, Dr. Hafez al-Karmi, confirmed that London's decision to classify Hamas as a terrorist movement is a political decision par excellence, to counter the growing sympathy for the Palestinian cause in the British street.

“Nothing new happened to Hamas, to make Britain classify it as a terrorist; in fact, the movement has become more open politically in the recent period,” al-Karmi added in an exclusive interview with Al-Estiklal.

“Arab diplomacy is unable to confront the British aggression against Palestine. On the contrary, you find that it is currently preoccupied with public normalization rather than defending the historical right of the Palestinian people,” al-Karmi pointed out.

Al-Karmi warned of the danger of Western hypocrisy embodied in the British decision and double standards.

“They declare their support for the freedom of peoples and human rights and then support authoritarian regimes and occupiers,” he added.

“The Palestinian people are not divided and will continue to resist the occupier, and that they will communicate with British parliamentarians and human rights defenders to stop the unjust decision,” al-Karmi stressed.

On November 26, 2021, the British Home Office announced that the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, with its political and military wings, was classified as a terrorist organization.

The Movement was condemned by several Palestinian factions and organizations, while the United Nations announced, later, the continuation of its dealings with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

In recent months, it has been noticed that sympathy with the Palestinian cause has increased in Europe in general, and Britain in particular, which witnessed many marches in which the number of participants exceeded hundreds of thousands to denounce Israel’s recent aggression against Jerusalem and Gaza between 10 and 21 May 2021, which resulted in the death and injury of thousands of Palestinians.

 

Political Decision

 

• How do you see Britain's decision to classify Hamas as a terrorist organization? And why?

Dr. Hafez al-Karmi: This is a political decision par excellence and has nothing to do with any developments in Britain, nor was there anything new about the position of Hamas; in fact, it has increased political openness in the recent period.

Especially after the recent Saif al-Quds battle, which made a country like Germany call on the European Union countries to open up to the movement and to negotiate with it at the political level; therefore, it is a decision hostile to the Palestinian people as a whole.

There are also two variables that have occurred recently that may be the reason for this tendency of the British government; the first is the growing support and solidarity of the British people with the Palestinian cause.

This was clearly evident in the solidarity marches that included hundreds of thousands in all British cities, especially from the younger generations, in rejection of the Zionist aggression and in solidarity with the Palestinian people during the recent attack.

The second is the diligent move of the Zionist lobby in Britain, which has huge influence, in order to besiege the Palestinian narrative; as well as the presence of the Zionist British government is remarkable.

Especially the current Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who says that he is an ardent Zionist.

 

• What is the secret behind the British Home Secretary's decision to classify Hamas as a terrorist organization?

Dr. Hafez al-Karmi: Britain has put the military wing of Hamas on its terrorist lists for twenty years and excludes the political wing; unlike the European Union, the United States and Canada, which classify Hamas, with its political and military wings, on the list of terrorist organizations.

This decision is nothing more than flattery and hypocrisy to gain the approval of the Zionist lobby in Britain, which has a strong influence within the corridors of the government and the ruling party in particular.

 

 

• What is the position of the Palestine Scholars Association on this decision?

Dr. Hafez al-Karmi: The association, in coordination with a group of Islamic organizations, issued a position rejecting the British government’s decision, and considered it a new attack on our Palestinian people is added to the series of British attacks since the ominous Balfour Declaration until today.

“The Britain’s decision is stood with the Zionist murderer and executioner against the Palestinian people and their resistance that defends their right to freedom and independence on their land and the land of their ancestors,” the association also considered.

“The decision represents a coup against international law, which gave people the right to defend themselves and live in dignity,” the association stressed.

The association called on the peoples of the Arab Islamic nation to resist the Zionist Occupation and rejected the unjust British decision by various means.

“The call of the nation's scholars, preachers and preachers to express their rejection of this unjust decision, emphasizing that our religion obliges us to confront those who occupy our land and to resist them by all means until the liberation of the land,” the association stressed.

We will communicate with British parliamentarians and human rights activists to stop the decision.

 

• What are the expected moves to struggle against this decision?

Dr. Hafez al-Karmi: The moves in all directions did not stop against this decision through letters to the British Parliament so as not to legitimize and legalize it, as well as pressure on British civil society institutions and human rights associations to move in order to confront this injustice and abolish it.

In addition to addressing the concerned institutions in the Arab and Islamic countries to play their role through the diplomatic, economic and political means they possess, to put pressure on Johnson’s government to force it to retract the outrageous decision.

 

Arab Normalization

 

• The Zionists used the weapon of blackmail against Germany because of the Nazi Holocaust. Is it possible to use the same weapon against Britain and the Zionist entity because of their many massacres against the Palestinians?

Dr. Hafez al-Karmi: Yes, the Zionists did that because they possessed various cards and lobbies to put great pressure on Western governments to get what they want.

As for the Palestinians, they are deprived of these tools because the Arab and Islamic countries do not use their tools to obtain concessions from Britain or others.

On the contrary, we see some Arab countries sympathetic to the Zionist Occupation and inciting against the Palestinian people and their resistance in an open and official way, and that is our calamity.

 

• How do you see the Palestinian, Arab, Islamic and international reaction to this racist British decision?

Dr. Hafez al-Karmi: We did not see any responses at the official level except for a statement from the Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemning the decision without any accompanying diplomatic moves.

As for popular moves and civil society organizations, they do what they can by issuing statements of condemnation, solidarity campaigns, and other media.

It is not expected that all of them will have the effect of hindering the British decision if it is not accompanied by a wide official diplomatic move.

 

• Do you see that this step will be the main engine to heal the Palestinian rift and achieve unity?

Dr. Hafez al-Karmi: In fact, the Palestinian people are not divided, and they have been defending their rights, their land and their homeland for more than a hundred years.

The Palestinian people made sacrifices and thousands of martyrs and did not and will not spare the precious to liberate their homeland.

They continued to resist the occupier until a few of them went on the Oslo Road and cooperated with the Zionist enemy, not only did they stop the resistance, but they engaged in the pursuit of the resistance against the occupier.

What led to this division and fragmentation; therefore, the demise of the division requires that this functional authority of the so-called Palestinian Authority acknowledge the sin of Oslo and return to the bosom of its people and nation.

 

 

Double Standards

 

• How do you see Western double standards; they negotiate with Hamas in order to exchange prisoners in one way, and then classify it as a terrorist in another way?

Dr. Hafez al-Karmi: There is clear Western hypocrisy, and it is not new for them to follow the policy of double standards for a long time.

On the one hand, they declare that they are with the freedom of peoples, human rights and democracy. On the other hand, they support tyrants and occupiers and support them politically and financially.

They only understand the language of interests, and they lack morals, values and human principles.

 

• What is the impact of the decision on civil society institutions in Britain that support Hamas and the Palestinian cause?

Dr. Hafez al-Karmi: There are no institutions or individuals in Britain who say they are from the Hamas Movement to be affected by this decision.

As for civil society organizations, they operate within the legal framework of British law; therefore, it is not expected to have any field impact on Palestinian work and activity in Britain.

 

• Can we consider this decision as Balfour Declaration 2 against the Palestinian people?

Dr. Hafez al-Karmi: The Balfour Declaration is one of the foundations for the establishment of this Zionist entity, since that time, Britain has not hesitated to support this entity politically, financially, diplomatically and militarily.

Its successive governments, the last of which was Johnson’s government, identifying itself with the Zionist Occupation; this decision is only part of this identification.

 

 

• Did not international law guarantee the right of peoples to resist the occupier by all means? The South African model is not far away.

Dr. Hafez al-Karmi: Certainly, international law guarantees this, Hamas and all the various Palestinian resistance movements are like fighters for the liberation of their homeland from the settler Zionist Occupation.

This is a right guaranteed to them under the laws of the United Nations and international laws; therefore, they have the right to defend their country, their people and their sanctities.

 

• Don't you think that Britain should recognize its historical commitment to the Palestinian people?

Dr. Hafez al-Karmi: Yes, and we still demand Britain to atone for its first sin since 1917, and an apology to the Palestinian people for its role and the crime against it.

As well as compensating it for what happened to it as a result of the disastrous Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate for the State of Palestine and supporting the Zionist gangs in displacing the Palestinian people and destroying their properties, villages, cities and sanctities.

 

• How do you evaluate the historical stances of British parties that support the Palestinian cause and their boycott of settlement goods and their condemnation of apartheid?

Dr. Hafez al-Karmi: Boycotting Israeli interests is part of a global campaign that should include isolating this entity internationally; the apartheid regime in South Africa was also isolated until this regime was overthrown and giving the Palestinian people their right to freedom and independence.