We welcome the steps taken by the British Government in recent years to proscribe the political wings of Hamas and Hezbollah, and most recently the news that a ban on Iran’s IRGC is expected.
This leaves an anomaly where the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) is not proscribed.
Please therefore sign this petition which we will send to the Prime Minister and Home Secretary:
“We, the undersigned, call on the UK Government to build on its decision to proscribe Hezbollah and Hamas in their entireties, and the recent news that a ban on the IRGC is expected, by designating the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) as a foreign terrorist organisation.
The UK’s current stance on PFLP is an anomaly given not just its ban on the other groups listed above but also the PFLP being designated as a terrorist organisation by the USA, Japan, Canada, Australia, Israel and the European Union.
PFLP is considerably more radical than the main faction in the PLO, Fatah. It refuses to recognise or negotiate with Israel and calls for a one-state solution. PFLP states “its firm opposition to recognising the racist Zionist entity, and its determination to continue with all forms of the struggle, and foremost among them armed resistance, in order to liberate every grain of the soil of Palestine.”
The PFLP is responsible for scores of terror attacks that resulted in the deaths of dozens of Israelis. Terror attacks of particular note include the assassination of Israel’s Minister of Tourism, Rehavam Ze’evi, and the murder of Israeli teenager Rina Schnerb on August 23, 2019.
PFLP described the 2021 terror attack by Fadi Abu Shkhaydam’s when he used a submachine gun to murder Israeli civilian Eliyahu Kay and wound 4 other people in the Old City of Jerusalem as “heroic” and “ideal” and the terrorist as a “knight”.
PFLP’s “Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades,” operates from an HQ in Damascus and cooperates with Iran and Hezbollah.
The Terrorism Act 2000 says “Terrorism is defined in United Kingdom law as the use or threat of action, both in and outside of the United Kingdom, designed to influence any international government organisation or to intimidate the public and for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.” PFLP falls within this definition. It should therefore be proscribed, following the same legal and security rationale that has been applied to Hamas and Hezbollah and is reported to be about to be applied to the IRGC.”
