LONDON (Dispatches) – A British rights group has filed a second legal application calling on the UK government to remove the Palestinian resistance movement group Hamas from a list of proscribed so-called ‘terrorist organizations.’
Cage International said on Tuesday it had instructed lawyers to appeal the decision in 2021 by former UK Home Secretary Priti Patel to proscribe Hamas in its entirety.
The proscription of Hamas predates its current war with the Zionist regime in Gaza, where the group has been the de facto authority since winning Palestinian elections in 2006, and the Hamas-led operation in southern parts of the Israeli-occupied territories in October 2023. 
Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, was proscribed by the UK more than two decades ago. But Patel decided to extend the ban to the whole organization, arguing there was no longer a distinction between the political and military wings of the group.
Proscribing a group as a terrorist organization automatically creates several criminal offenses for anyone who is a group member, who wears or publishes the group’s symbols, expresses or invites support for the group, or organizes a meeting to support it.
Section 4 of the UK Terrorism Act allows any person affected by an organization’s proscription to apply to the home secretary for its de-proscription.
Cage, an advocacy group that campaigns on behalf of people affected by counterterrorism policies, is using this clause to lodge its application over concerns its clients, who are mostly British Muslims, have been disproportionately targeted in an “unjust, politically charged manner” as a consequence of Hamas being added to the list of banned organizations.
As part of its submission, Cage included 26 case studies involving clients who, it says, have been adversely impacted by the proscription of Hamas. These cases span a wide range of public and professional settings and highlight what the group describes as the overreach of counterterror legislation.