Australia designates Hamas as a terrorist organisation

Australia has announced its decision to list both the military and political wings of Hamas as a terrorist organisation, becoming the latest Western country to designate it. 

With this decision, Canberra no longer distinguishes between the military wing and the political wing but considers it a terrorist group in its entirety. In addition to Hamas, Australia has recently listed three radical groups, two of which (Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) and Hurras al Din) continue to operate in Syria, while the third is a far-right US group called the National Socialist Order.

In this context, Australia's Minister for Home Affairs, Karen Adrews, said that "the views of Hamas and the violent extremist groups listed today are deeply disturbing and there is no place in Australia for their hateful ideologies". She said it was "vital" that the country's laws "target not only terrorist acts and terrorists, but also the organisations that plan, fund and carry out these acts".

In response to Australia's decision, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet tweeted that he welcomed "the news that Australia has designated the entirety of Hamas as a terrorist organisation", and thanked Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for "continuing our dialogue on this important issue. It is another important step in the global fight against terrorism".

These statements were echoed by Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, who said that "Australia has once again chosen the right side of history".

Hamas said the decision "is part of a bias towards the Israeli occupation at the expense of the justice of the cause for the rights of the Palestinian people". Alongside this, the Palestinian group said in a public statement that the move "is a double standard that perpetuates support for a racist occupation that practices the most heinous crimes of murder and violates the sanctity of Islamic and Christian holy sites". Furthermore, they stressed that "it is the occupying state that should be classified as a terrorist state, not Hamas and the resistance".

However, Australia's decision is categorical: before designating the entire group as a terrorist organisation, Canberra had already taken this position with regard to its military wing, the Al Qassam Brigade. Now the Australian government joins countries such as the United Kingdom, Israel, Canada and the United States in doing so.

This decision carries with it certain consequences, such as restrictions on funding Hamas or supporting the group, which now carry a prison sentence of up to 25 years. 

Hamas, an Islamist group that came into existence in 1987, controls the Gaza Strip after claiming victory through elections in 2006. After these results, the international community decided to cut off aid to the Palestinian authorities and provoked internal confrontations between Hamas and Fatah, which currently controls the West Bank. 

Israel also blockaded the Gaza Strip in 2007, and since then there have been numerous confrontations between the two. In this context, the most recent was the escalation of violence in May 2021, which left hundreds dead and further aggravated the political crisis.