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UK Alone in Banning Hamas
The British government was reported Friday to be threatening "to go it alone" in banning not only the military wing but the entire organization of Hamas if it does not receive support from its European Union partners.
| Why did I suspect this might be the case? |
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was holding talks Friday with his Italian counterpart ahead of next weeks meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Italy, when he is expected to raise the issue again. Straw failed in his previous attempt to outlaw the entire Hamas organization and freeze its assets when Greece held the ERU presidency in June. But according to the Jewish Chronicle, the foreign secretary was warning that Britain might ban the political wing of the Palestinian organization even if the EU continues to reject it. The British government outraged Muslims on Thursday after the Charity Commission announced that it was freezing the assets of the UKs biggest Palestinian charity, Interpal, following a request from the US and Israel.
| Outraged them, huh? Golly. And they're usually so reasonable... |
Interpal chairman, Ibrahim Hewitt, a British Muslim convert, criticized the decision as part of a wider campaign to deprive Palestinians of any humanitarian aid.
| "Paleostinian children will die unless we continue providing them with essential arms and ammunition..." |
In his previous post as Home Secretary, Straw proscribed Hamas military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam brigade as a `terrorist` group in Britain in 2000 and also made separate proposals for the EU to enable the freezing of assets and other measures. In recent remarks, he has resorted to describe the `other part` of Hamas as "its so-called charitable and political wing" and claimed that "these days there is an increasing consensus that both organizations are, in fact, one."
| One picks the targets, the other blows them. One buys the arms and ammunition, the other uses them... |
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-09-01 |
