The ECAJ has warmly commended the Federal gov­ern­ment and Minister for Home Affairs, Karen Andrews, for the decision announced today to list Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist organ­iz­a­tion under the Criminal Code.

“Hamas political leaders have overseen and par­ti­cip­ated directly in terrorist oper­a­tions and activ­it­ies”, said ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim, “They have admitted in a variety of contexts that Hamas’s military wing is sub­or­din­ate to the political lead­er­ship, and that assist­ance from the Iranian regime, aimed at expanding Hamas’s terrorist capa­cit­ies, extends to the whole organ­isa­tion. There was thus no jus­ti­fic­a­tion for limiting the pro­scrip­tion of Hamas to its so-called “military wing”, as was formerly the case”.

Wertheim, who rep­res­en­ted the ECAJ at the Inquiry into the listing of Hamas which was conducted by the Par­lia­ment­ary Joint Committee on Intel­li­gence and Security in October 2021, expressed thanks to Senator James Patterson, the Committee Chair, and Committee members for having recom­men­ded that the whole of Hamas be pro­scribed.

“It is espe­cially heart­en­ing that the Committee’s recom­mend­a­tion and the ensuing decision by the Minister were guided solely by the evidence, as high­lighted in the written and oral sub­mis­sions over the years made by the ECAJ,” Wertheim said. “Extending the listing to Hamas in its entirety was overdue, but very welcome.”

The ECAJ also welcomed the Federal government’s decision to list Hay’at Tahrir al- Sham, Hurras al-Din and the National Socialist Order (formerly Atom­waf­fen Division) as terrorist organ­isa­tions.

“Violent extremist acts and ideo­lo­gies, whether reli­giously, racially or ideo­lo­gic­ally motivated, are abhorrent to Australia’s national values and way of life”, Wertheim said. “We commend the gov­ern­ment for its vigilance and decisive action in respond­ing to rapid changes to Australia’s security landscape.”