AJC Dismayed by EU Court Decision on Hamas

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Dec 17, 2014, 11:23 ET

NEW YORK, Dec. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC is dismayed by the decision of the European Union General Court to remove Hamas, for now at least, from the EU list of terrorist organizations, and urges a speedy reversal of the ruling.

The Hamas charter spews blatant anti-Semitism and calls for the destruction of Israel, and Hamas operatives have been engaged in numerous and documented bloody terror attacks over the years. The official EU designation of Hamas as a terror organization in 2003 made it harder for the group to recruit supporters and raise money in Europe. Today, eleven years later, the EU's top court suddenly decided that the evidence for Hamas terrorism is somehow unreliable, derived only "from the press and the internet."

While the General Court sought to minimize the impact of its ruling, calling it "a technicality" and not a redefinition of Hamas as in any way legitimate, AJC Executive Director David Harris said: "This odd decision ratchets up still further the terrorist threat to democratic societies, while terrorists cynically use legal procedures in those societies to protect themselves. Even though the Court is temporarily keeping in place the freezing of Hamas funds, the news that the group could find a procedural escape clause from the EU designation is profoundly troubling. The EU General Court should quickly revisit this case and reverse its decision."

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SOURCE American Jewish Committee