The European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued on Wednesday , 26 July 2017 a decision to refuse the case of  lifting the name of Hamas Movement from the European terror list presented by the Court of First Instance which had issued a decision on 17/12/2014  to remove the name of Hamas from the EU terror list. The Court said itdid not want to pass a judgment in the case because the Court of First Instance  did not respond to the second arguments submitted by Hamas to the Court; therefore , the Court did not have sufficient information to authorize a judgment in the case.

This decision came after the European Union Council appealed the decision of the Court of First Instance and asked to place the name of Hamas on the EU terror list; however, the ECJ put the name of Hamas on the blacklist and returned the case to the Court of First Instance .

On September 23,2016, the Attorney General of European Court, Eleanor Chapestone, issued a legal opinion in favor of lifting the name of Hamas from the terror list as there is no legal justifications for it.

We , in Hamas , assure the following :

1- We will legally continue challenging the unjust political decisions against our people and Hamas Movement. We consider the international court as an arena of struggle that must be fought to defend the rights of our people against the Israeli claims and their supporters. 

2- We are well aware of the size of the political and media support enjoyed by the Israeli Occupation in the Western institutions , as well as the growing popular support of the Palestinian cause which angers the  Israeli occupation and its supporters.

3. The Israeli media tried to show that the decision was in their favor by keeping  Hamas  on the terror list based on a press release issued by the court which contradicts the text of the legal decision.

4. The ECJ should have followed the same line of reasoning as the Court of First Instance and the Attorney General’s report rather than wasting time and effort and issuing judgment backed by political interests.

5. Whatever the legal or  political judgments, we will remain faithful to our political agenda which defends the rights of our people without abandoning any inch from our land or our rights. We will remain adherent to our moral and human values which refuse to target innocent civilians  or to transfer the battle outside our occupied homeland despite of the criminal and racist policies committed by the Israeli Occupation such as the recent attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque.

Islamic Resistance Movement “Hamas”

26^th of July, 2017