Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria the Government uses to distinguish between the political and military wings of Hamas in relation to the proscribing of organisations.

The elements of Hamas which meet the criteria for proscription under section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000 are listed in Schedule 2 to that Act. The relevant entry proscribes “Hamas Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades (Hamas IDQ)”. Those parts of Hamas which do not fall within the Schedule 2 entry are not proscribed.

Hamas IDQ, the military wing of Hamas, was proscribed in March 2001. The political wing of Hamas is not proscribed as it is considered that there is a clear distinction between Hamas’s military and political wings.

In distinguishing between the political and military wings for the purposes of proscription, the Government's aim is to proscribe only those parts of Hamas which are directly concerned in terrorism.