On December 14, Statewatch, which monitors anti-terrorism legislation and civil liberties in Europe, revealed an Italian, French, and German plan entitled “Confronting Hamas at the European Union and World Level: Restrictive Measures and Political Delegitimization.” “.
The organization said that the plan was directed to the European Union Military Staff and the European Union External Action Service, and includes a multi-pronged project aimed at undermining the Hamas movement and strengthening the Israeli narrative, under the pretext of “sending a strong political message about the European Union’s commitment against Hamas and solidarity with Israel.”
Plan objectives
According to the expressions contained therein, the plan aims to isolate Hamas internationally, delegitimize the narrative that promotes the movement as representing the Palestinian people and defending their cause, and stressing that it is a “terrorist organization” whose infrastructure must be disrupted, its sources of funding combated, delegitimized from it, and its media discourse confronted. .
The proposed plan is based on several axes that work to identify effective tools at the international level and within the European Union to implement its goals, including:
- First: deprivation Hamas outside Gaza of resources
The European Union classifies Hamas and its military arm, the Al-Qassam Brigades, as a “terrorist group,” a classification that extends to other Palestinian groups such as the Islamic Jihad Movement, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
Under the classification, the assets and property of these groups in Europe are frozen if they exist, and transactions with them are prohibited.
The proposed plan calls for expanding the scope of restrictive measures related to designating Hamas as a “terrorist group.”
These measures include including persons designated by the United States, the United States, and Britain on their terrorist lists due to their relationship with Hamas on European terrorism lists.
- Second: Invoking the plan to destabilize Iran
In addition, the sanctions regime will be expanded to include what the plan calls “support or participation in Iran’s destabilization of regional stability” according to a perspective linking Iranian support for Russia in the Ukraine war with Iranian support for Hamas, with the aim of opening the door to including individuals and entities on the sanctions list under the pretext of providing weapons to… Hamas, which will focus primarily on Iran.
The plan also calls for exploring the possibility of creating expanded horizontal sanctions regimes tailored to the movement to include everything that falls under “providing support to Hamas,” such as logistical, political, media, financial, or other support.
In order to generalize this, the plan calls for exchanging data regarding Hamas with European Union partners, especially the G7 member states.
- Third: Activating the fight against financing
The plan also calls for benefiting from the experience of the “Anti-Finance Working Group” of the International Coalition against ISIS, specifically in its approach to disrupting the organization’s ability to generate revenues and access local and global financial systems, and using this to disrupt Hamas’s financial network after studying it closely, and focusing on investments. Private currencies, cryptocurrencies, and financial support that Hamas receives from other countries.
These measures are intertwined with French President Emmanuel Macron’s call last October to expand the international coalition to confront ISIS to include the Hamas movement.
Finally, the plan calls for coordinating the monitoring and evaluation of humanitarian aid directed to the Palestinians so that Hamas or any of the associations affiliated with it do not benefit from it.
- Fourth: Depriving Hamas of support networks and undermining its infrastructure
This axis is based on coordinating measures at the European Union level and across the world to ban associations supporting Hamas, which was demonstrated in practice in Germany’s ban last November of the “Resilient in Defense of Prisoners” network.
This extends to prohibiting the use of symbols that represent support for Hamas, prohibiting these associations from the right to organize gatherings, freezing and confiscating their assets and property, and so on.
These measures, according to what was stated in the plan, seek to dry up public solidarity with Hamas in Europe and beyond, which was clearly expressed by German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck when he stated that burning Israeli flags or solidarity with Hamas is a criminal offense in his country.
Perhaps the measures will expand to include punishing the wearing of the Palestinian keffiyeh, to obscure all reminders of the Palestinian narrative.
- Fifth: Combating Hamas’ media propaganda
Under the title “Combat Hate Speech,” the plan calls for monitoring digital platforms and the content published on them related to the Palestinian issue.
Intensifying communication with major social media companies such as Meta and TikTok to monitor their compliance with official requests issued by the European Commission regarding content published on their platforms, and taking proactive measures to combat publications described as “harmful.”
This means restricting content supporting the Palestinian resistance, and threatening to take steps against platforms that do not respond to European requests under the pretext of not implementing European Union rules.
This axis includes the French company that operates the satellite, Eutelsat, blocking Hamas’s Al-Aqsa channel and stopping its broadcasts with the start of the aggression on Gaza.
- Sixth: Dismantling the political umbrella of the Hamas movement
The plan indicates the importance of remaining the Hamas political offices located in Qatar and Turkey at the present time, for their role as communication channels regarding prisoner exchange deals, and communication to prevent a greater regional escalation.
However, he stresses the need to urge countries hosting Hamas’ political leaders not to provide safe havens for them in the medium or long term, which means putting pressure on those countries to expel and deport Hamas leaders and close their political offices with the end of the short-term Western goals expected of them.
Obstacles to the plan
The plan sets ambitious goals, as the demand for its implementation is not limited to European Union countries, but rather they call for its global implementation, which faces many obstacles, the most prominent of which are:
- 1- The absence of a definition of terrorism
According to Julia Hall, a counter-terrorism researcher at Amnesty International, the lack of an international definition of terrorism and a precise understanding of what constitutes support for terrorism will lead to disagreements over the plan.
Many Islamic countries reject the Western perspective on the Hamas movement. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly stated that Hamas is a national liberation movement, not a terrorist group.
Iran agrees with this position, and many Arab countries such as Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen view Hamas as representing legitimate resistance.
- 2- Arab-Islamic rejection
Most other Arab and Islamic countries also refuse to engage in plans that essentially serve Israeli interests without any return to the Palestinians.
- 3- International obstacles
There are also obstacles on the international stage. Russia does not classify Hamas as a terrorist group, and also opens Moscow’s doors to frequent visits from Hamas delegations, while China distances itself from hostile positions towards the movement, and believes that Israeli practices in Gaza exceed the limits of self-defense, and that the Israeli government must Stop collective punishment of Gaza residents.
As for the President of Brazil, Lula de Silva, he stated that Hamas is not a terrorist organization, and the relations of many Latin American countries with Israel were also strained after the recent aggression. Bolivia severed its relations with Tel Aviv, while Chile recalled its ambassador to Israel, and the Colombian president asked for the Israeli ambassador to leave. From his country.
- 4- Potential European disputes
Even at the European level, the differences between European countries regarding the Palestinian issue may be reflected in their prioritization of confronting Hamas. The prime ministers of Spain and Belgium stress the necessity of a ceasefire, the entry of humanitarian aid, and stopping Israel’s killing of civilians, which Ireland agrees with them on.
These positions constitute a major contradiction with the French, German, Italian and British positions that support Israel with equipment, as Germany placed two Heron drones at the service of Israel, while London sent two warships and spy planes to support Israel.
a summary
Despite these obstacles, the aforementioned plan, with its broad language, could restrict, if implemented in Europe, activities in support of the Palestinian cause in Europe carried out by non-governmental organizations, civil society, and solidarity groups, under the pretext that they serve Hamas.
On the other hand, this will enhance the civilizational clash by highlighting open official European support for Israel, which will provoke the Arab and Islamic peoples and many countries that reject the occupation’s practices.
It will strengthen the fault lines between the white North and the global South, and will entrench the conflict of the axes, as it will push countries and entities affected by Western behavior to cooperate in the face of the sanctions imposed on them.