Hamas: Removal from EU terror list our victory

GAZA CITY: Hamas on Wednesday hailed a European court decision to remove the Palestinian group from the EU’s terrorism blacklist, describing the move as a “victory.”
“This is a victory for the Palestinian question and for the rights of our people,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP.
“We thank the European court for this positive decision which must be followed by international steps to lift the oppression of the Palestinian people.”
A European Union court on Wednesday ordered the rulers of Gaza from the EU terrorist list for procedural reasons, but says the bloc can maintain asset freezes against Hamas members for now.
Hamas was put on the EU terrorist list as part of broader measures to fight terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. It won elections in 2006 and runs Gaza, and has long contested the classification.
The EU court ruled Wednesday that the listing was based on press and Internet reports and not on “acts examined and confirmed in decisions of competent authorities.”
The court insisted that its ruling did not “imply any substantive assessment of the question of the classification of Hamas as a terrorist group.” It therefore ruled that the asset freezes should stay in place for three months pending further EU actions.
The EU is considering its next steps. It has two months to appeal.
The terrorist list designation bars EU officials from dealing with the group, and requires that any of the group’s funds in EU countries be frozen.
The decision comes amid growing pressure from European legislators to recognize a Palestinian state, after years of stalemate in peace talks. There was also growing frustration in Europe with Israel’s government after the Gaza war earlier this year.
Salah Bardawil, a Hamas official in Gaza, called the decision a “strong, good shift” that he said would ultimately lead to European action against Israel.
Netanyahu said Hamas is “a murderous terror organization” and called for Hamas to be immediately returned to the list.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Europeans appeared to have learned nothing from the Holocaust.
“In Luxemburg the European court removed Hamas from the list of terrorist organizations,” Netanyahu’s office quoted him as saying. “It seems that too many in Europe, on whose soil six million Jews were slaughtered, have learned nothing.”