Hamas has confirmed that Yahya Sinwar was killed on Thursday in combat with Israeli forces. It is already clear that in the eyes of many Palestinians and many supporters of Palestinian liberation he is an even greater hero in death than he was in life.
As far as British law is concerned he was a terrorist and expressing support for him is a crime. But history has never yet been written by British prosecutors. History has no more reason to label Sinwar a terrorist than to pin that label on any other freedom fighter.
If I were inclined to criticise Sinwar or Hamas I would refrain from doing so, because I would be rolling my opinion down a tilted playing field. Anyone who publicly disagreed with me would risk prosecution. And if I were inclined to say something supportive of Sinwar I would also refrain from doing so, because the tilt of UK law would be against me. I refuse to engage in a political discussion chaired by the police.
If I were writing from the US, where Hamas is also banned, the First Amendment of the US Constitution would allow me and anyone who wished to disagree with me to write whatever we thought appropriate. Writing in the UK we have the more limited protection of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 10 allows restrictions on freedom of expression that “are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime” etc etc. It is to be hoped that the courts will rule against some of the more adventurous recent police interpretations of the law. But the legislation enacted by Parliament is fundamentally repressive, is apt to be broadly supported in its repressive intent by the courts, and will remain repressive even if stripped of police attempts to overstep the law for deterrent effect.
Hamas is not designated by the UN as a terrorist organisation. Nothing in UK law can erase the internationally recognised right of the Palestinian people to use armed force to resist occupation and colonisation. The main organisation exercising that right at the moment is Hamas. The legal position at present appears to be that we in the UK can speak supportively of the abstract right to armed resistance only if we keep our remarks disarticulated from the concrete situation in Gaza.
The Israeli forces fighting Hamas are openly defying interim orders imposed by the International Court of Justice to prevent genocide. They are at the moment engaged in genocide, a self-evident fact that the ICJ regards as a plausible allegation pending resolution of the case brought against Israel by South Africa. Efforts by Hezbollah (an organisation that UK law also prevents us making supportive remarks about) to deter Israel’s genocidal actions have already led Israel to attack Lebanon and to a confrontation between Israel and Iran that has drawn in British and US forces and seems likely to escalate much further.
Hamas is the fulcrum of events that vitally affect us all. But discussion of Hamas in the UK is unlawful unless it broadly conforms to the British state’s perspective on the organisation. The result is that civil society in the UK is unable to properly address some of the most important events unfolding around us.
The supposedly criminal character of Hamas and Hezbollah, even if accepted, provides no legal basis for Israel’s genocide in Gaza or for its trajectory towards a genocidal strategy in Lebanon. But Israel and its allies persist in acting as if the H-words can justify anything. UK law is helping to create the conditions for genocide.
The UK’s anti-terrorism laws need to be repealed in toto. But we can’t wait for that. Hamas and Hezbollah were added to the UK’s list of banned organisations with minimal parliamentary debate and can be removed just as easily, if the Government so wishes. Doing so would not increase the risk to the British public of terrorist violence but would transform public discussion on Palestine and open the door for Britain to become an influence for peace and liberation instead of for war and colonialism.
The Goverment clearly has no intention of doing that. But it is a mistake to imagine that we can campaign effectively for an end to the Gaza genocide without also campaigning against UK legislation that is enabling it. Demands for the unbanning of Hamas and Hezbollah need to be highlighted alongside demands for a halt to Israeli military operations. If there are challenges in building mass support for this position it is only because the issue has been neglected for far too long.
We cannot speak meaningfully about the death of Yahya Sinwar as long as it is a crime to express in Britain views about him that are held by multitudes of people around the world. That should be a warning that there is a wider malaise in our capacity to engage with the politics of Palestinian liberation.
Photo: Yahya Sinwar at a gathering with Palestinian youth in Gaza City, October 19, 2017, by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images