The Hamas movement hailed on Friday the decision of a European court to cancel the listing of Hamas and its armed wing al-Qassam Brigades from the world's list of terrorism.
Hazem Qassem, Hamas spokesman in Gaza told Xinhua that the decision to remove Hamas and its armed wing from the world's terrorist list "is positive and a right step in the right direction."
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According to local websites close to Hamas on Friday, the movement's attorney in Europe, Khaled al-Showly, said that the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg decided on Thursday to remove Hamas movement and its armed wing al-Qassam Brigades from the world's list of terrorism.
He also said that the decision of the court is not final, but the previous decisions on the reinsertion of Hamas and its military wing on terrorist lists "are null and void."
What the hell? The Qassam Brigades, whose homepage looks like this, is not a terrorist group?
The European Court of First Instance is apparently now called the General Court, and it seems that Hamas initiated an action there to take itself off the list of terrorist entities.
Assuming Hamas is telling the truth, the actual ruling will need to be seen to be believed. I cannot imagine any logic that would allow Hamas' terror wing to not be called terrorist.
UPDATE: Shasha adds a crucial detail:
Although the new ruling overturned the decisions in some form, it does not include the decisions made in 2019, which have not been appealed, and the new provision has nothing to do with the basic case in which the first judgment of the Court of First Instance was issued on 17 December 2014, which It remains subject to appeal to the European Court of Justice.In March 2019, Hamas was confirmed to stay on the terror list, so apparently that ruling stands. Why there are so many different rulings on the same topic that each have to be looked at separately is fuzzy.