Georgia L Gilholy is a freelance journalist and social media consultant for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA).
The campaign to proscribe the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), a group behind spates of murderous terror proxies across the world, gained momentum in 2023. While pledges to examine a ban merited several front pages, the idea was shelved after Suella Braverman’s dramatic resignation as Home Secretary, despite claims its operatives had sought to target Jews and Israelis in Britain.
In January the Government did, at least, finally ban the (self-described) “non-violent” Hizb Ut Tahrir, almost 30 years after the Guardian exposed one of its pamphlets for urging Muslims to “trigger bombs”, “hijack planes”, and to “fight the Jews and kill them”. Even then, this only after viral clips, depicting its members calling for violent jihad as police officers milled around as if patrolling a village fete, sparked public outrage.
Yet there is another major terrorist group with UK support that most Brits today have never heard of: the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). And it is perfectly legal to be a member.
The PFLP made more headlines throughout the Sixties and Seventies when they became the first Palestinian organisation to hijack planes. Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor once quietly offered herself in exchange for the release of 106 Jewish crew and passengers kidnapped by the group (later freed by the Israelis in their famous raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda).
They have since claimed responsibility for a slew of terror incidents including a 2014 massacre at a Jerusalem synagogue and a 2019 suicide bombing in the same city. More recently, the PFLP were directly involved in the 7 October massacre. Like their allies in Hamas, they proudly broadcast videos, images, and text celebrating their attacks, and were reportedly involved in kidnapping.
While the group attempts to maintain the veneer of being purely “political”, they have routinely employed terror methods targeting civilians, including suicide bombings, shootings, and assassinations. Is it so surprising that they are designated as a terror group by the US, Canada, and European Union?
The only reason for the PFLP’s muted modern profile is that their secular and Marxist flavour of extremism has been out-flanked by nakedly Islamist groups like Hamas, Fatah, and Hezbollah, who garner support and arms from a wider global and regional constituency.
Long gone are the days when the PFLP could rely on cash from the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party. Yet it is precisely its rather dated Marxist connotations that have seen the organisation gain currency with elements of the hard left, despite that this makes them no less of a potential terror threat than the Islamist radicals with whom they routinely align themselves.
PFLP flags and banners have been present at football matches and anti-Israel marches. Leila Khaled, a PFLP terrorist responsible for the murder of children and other civilians, was recently scheduled to be hosted via videolink at a fundraising dinner in Birmingham.
Last year Salah Hamouri, a convicted PFLP terrorist who was involved in a foiled plot to assassinate Israel’s chief rabbi, visited the UK on a lecture tour. A freedom of information request by a pro-Israel group campaigning to ban the PFLP found that Univerisity of Essex students had promoted it on campus without penalty.
Such chilling incidents are likely just the tip of a rather unpleasant iceberg. By allowing the PFLP to remain a legal group, whilst banning others, ministers have allowed it to maintain a veneer of respectability.
They have also denied British institutions the tools they need to respond to its activities. Under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000, it is an offence to publicly display items such as flags and placards if doing so arouses reasonable suspicion that the person is a member or supporter of a proscribed group. Under section 12(1) of the same act, it is illegal to invite support for a banned organisation.
Like Hamas and Hezbollah, already banned under this act, the PFLP are a terrorist group. They have never hid this fact. Yet in Britain they, and support for them, remain legal. A ban is as fitting and sorely needed as the failure to implement one is baffling.
The post Georgia L Gilholy: Ministers must finally ban the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine appeared first on Conservative Home.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Georgia L. Gilholy
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, http://www.conservativehome.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.