EU court says Hamas should be removed from terror list

Source: Reuters

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas should be removed from the European Union's terrorist list, an EU court ruled on Wednesday, saying the decision to include it was based merely on media and internet reports.

However, the General Court of the European Union, the bloc's second highest tribunal, said EU member states could maintain their freeze on Hamas's assets for three months to give time for further review or to appeal the ruling.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly called on Europe to maintain the ban. "We expect them to immediately put Hamas back on the list," he said in a statement from Jerusalem, denouncing Hamas as "a murderous terrorist organization".

Hamas holds sway in the Gaza Strip and its founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel. It has regularly clashed with the Jewish state, most recently in a 50-day war this summer.

However, most Western countries, including the United States, agree with Israel that it is a terror organization, pointing to indiscriminate rocket strikes out of Gaza and waves of suicide attacks, primarily between 1993 and 2005.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/17/us-eu-hamas-courts-idUSKBN0JV0S020141217?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter