The Zionist Federation of Australia on Friday called for the Australian Government to list all of Hamas as a terrorist organisation. Currently, Australia only proscribes Hamas’s military wing. The ZFA has made a submission to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee calling for this change.
ZFA President Jeremy Leibler said “The Government acknowledges that Hamas’s military wing takes direction and funds from Hamas’s political wing. It acknowledges that Hamas’s aim is Israel’s destruction and that it supports violence to achieve this. And yet the Government maintains a fiction that the military wing is separate. This should change.”
ZFA Director of Public Affairs Bren Carlill agreed. “Hamas’s leadership, in statement after statement, celebrates attacks against civilians and boast that they direct these attacks”, said Dr Carlill. “They are terrorists and should be recognised as such.”
In June this year, the ZFA appeared before the Intelligence and Security Committee urging it recommend that all of Hezbollah be proscribed. The Committee, which also heard from other Australian Jewish organisations, subsequently concurred.
The ZFA submission can be read here.
