Scottish Greens boss demands Hamas political wing leave terror list

Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer has called on Whitehall to reverse the 2021 decision that proscribed Hamas in full, insisting only its military wing should stay on the terror list while the political wing is treated as a partner for peace.

Greer told interviewers the ban on the political side is “actually a barrier to peace” and that “the UK government only did that a couple of years ago.” He argued the political wing “needs to be engaged with for the purposes of finding peace, just as we here in the UK did in Northern Ireland,” drawing a direct parallel with the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin.

Hamas’s political leadership is headed by Khalil al-Hayya, who helped plot the October 7 attacks that killed at least 1,200 people. Al-Hayya has called that massacre a “source of pride for our people” and a “great act.” Greer still maintained there is a clear distinction between the military and political arms.

Britain first listed the military wing in 2001. Under Sir Tony Blair the political wing was treated as separate. In 2021 ministers concluded Hamas was a “complex but single terrorist organisation” and proscribed both. Greer now wants that reversed for the political side alone.

Britain does not negotiate with terrorists by rebranding them. A group that planned mass murder, still glorifies it, and runs Gaza as a single command does not become a peace partner because one office changes its stationery. Sovereignty means drawing hard lines, not inventing polite fictions so talks can begin. The 2021 decision recognised reality; undoing it would reward the very structure that ordered October 7.

Pressed on the distinction, Greer claimed every party to any peace process would have committed war crimes: “Hamas have committed war crimes. The Israeli government have committed war crimes.” He went further, saying both sides are “guilty of grave war crimes” and that “the only way we can end genocide and the war crimes is with a peaceful resolution” that brings them “round the table.” He also asserted Israel had breached a ceasefire and “murdered about 1,500 people.”

The Scottish Greens have held this line for years. In 2015 the party passed a motion demanding Hamas no longer be called a terrorist organisation and condemning “Zionism as a racist ideology based on Jewish supremacy in Palestine.” English Greens later passed their own “Zionism is racism” motion. A Scottish Greens spokeswoman pointed to a 2023 conference motion, brought by Greer, that condemned the October 7 attacks and Israel’s response as the party’s current formal position.

Greer was 21 when first elected an MSP in 2016. His latest intervention lands while the UK still treats the entire organisation as proscribed. Ministers have given no sign they will reopen the 2021 listing. Any change would require the Home Office to accept that a political label can wash away the command structure behind October 7 and the continuing rule of Gaza.

GB News has reported the remarks in full. The practical next step sits with the Government: keep the single proscription that matches how Hamas actually operates, or accept Greer’s split and open formal contact with the political wing led by a planner of the massacre. For now the law remains unchanged and the organisation stays banned in its entirety.

Original source: GB News

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