Hamas pledges to fight int’l legal battle to defend Palestinian rights

The Hamas Movement has announced its intention to fight an international legal battle to defend the Palestinian people’s rights against the smear campaign waged by Israel and its supporters, stressing that it would remain faithful to its political line.

In a statement on Wednesday, Hamas explained its position on the European Union’s Court of Justice’s recent decision regarding its removal from the European terror list.

Hamas affirmed it would legally challenge the unjust political decisions taken against it and its own people, describing the international courts as an arena of struggle that must be used to defend the Palestinian people’s rights against defamation campaigns.

The Movement stated that the Court of Justice’s recent decision said the issue of removing Hamas from the EU’s terror list should be referred again to the General Court (Lower European court), which had annulled Hamas’ retention on the European list of terrorist groups in December 2014.

It added that the Court of Justice refused to issue a decision on the case because the EU needed to rely on more recent material than used in its initial decision, so it instructed the General Court to examine the facts and arguments it did not consider in its 2014 ruling.

Hamas said that Israeli media outlets relied on a press release contradicting the Court of Justice’s legal decision on the matter and tried to show that Hamas would be retained on the EU’s terror list.

However, Hamas criticized the Court of Justice for not issuing a final decision on the case and said it was supposed to follow the same line of the General Court and consider the report of its advocate general Eleanor Sharpston, who said “Hamas should be dropped from the terror list,” instead of wasting time and effort and making judgments drawn up by political balances and considerations.