In an extraordinary legal application submitted last week in London, Hamas argued that the British government should remove its designation of the group as a proscribed terror organization and recognize its legitimate role as a Palestinian resistance movement engaged in a struggle for self-determination and liberation. In a legal brief submitted to the British Home Secretary, senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk rejected allegations that the movement is an anti-semitic terror organization, asserted that Hamas poses no threat to Western nations, and argued that the political organization has never engaged in an armed operation outside the boundaries of historic Palestine.

Hamas enlisted a team of British lawyers to represent its appeal to the British Home Secretary and to challenge the movement’s terror designation. In the new episode of Drop Site Newsroom, Jeremy Scahill speaks with barrister Franck Magennis, one of the lawyers arguing the case on behalf of Hamas. Magennis is also involved with the legal effort to bring war crimes charges against ten British citizens who served in the Israeli military in Gaza. A 240-page dossier the attorneys delivered to Scotland Yard’s war crimes unit alleges the Brits participated in targeted killing of civilians and aid workers and indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, including hospitals and other war crimes.

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