EU keeps Hamas on terror list despite court ruling

[Jefferson23]

BRUSSELS (AFP) -- The European Union kept Hamas on its terrorism blacklist Friday despite a controversial court decision ordering Brussels to remove the Palestinian Islamist group from the register.

Brussels has lodged an appeal against a December ruling by the bloc's second highest court that Hamas should be delisted for the first time since 2001.

"Hamas stays on list during Council's appeal to December judgement," Susanne Kiefer, a spokeswoman for the European Council, said on Twitter.

snip*But the General Court of the European Union ruled last year that the Hamas blacklisting was based not on sound legal judgments but on conclusions derived from the media and the Internet.

http://www.maannews.com/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=760137

[geek tragedy]

1. Makes me grateful for the Political Question doctrine.

Absurd display of judicial intermeddling.

[Little Tich]

2. Hen of a feather.

The court decision was never controversial, it just stated the facts. If Hamas is engaging in and sponsoring terrorist acts, then it will stay on the list after the appeal as well.

[bemildred]

3. “When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone,

‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

Lewis Carroll reads a whole bunch different once you realize he was serious. He was a mathematician. That is how we think.

But anyway, this really brings Humpty-Dumpty to mind, terrorist means what we want it to mean, neither more nor less. "Because we say so."

But usually one doesn't point it out because it's obviously arbitrary, just your word.

[Jefferson23]

4. +1

Me, I was grateful the courts never saw fit to change the language to, evil doers.

[Jefferson23]

5. Hamas welcomes Egypt decision to remove group from terror list

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- A senior Hamas leader welcomed an Egyptian decision made Friday to drop the classification of the movement as a terrorist organization.

Salah al-Bardawil said in a statement that he hopes this step is the first of many towards improving the relationship between Egypt and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Al-Bardawil added that "Palestinians in Gaza, Hamas and the al-Qassam Brigades will keep protecting Egypt, Palestine and the Arab nation, as it is part of our religion, political and security views."

Friday's decision came after prominent armed groups in the coastal enclave -- the Al-Qassam Brigades, Al-Quds Brigades from Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Fatah, and the PFLP's Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades -- made a joint speech in February denouncing Egypt's decision to classify the Al-Qassam Brigades as a terrorist organization, according to Palestinian news sources.

http://www.maannews.com/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=760127

[bemildred]

6. +1. Interesting. nt