London, Dec 21: The European Union's second highest court has ordered the removal of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas from a terrorist blacklist. It added, however, that the group's assets should remain frozen for three months pending an almost certain appeal.
Following a deal among the main parties, the motion that was carried stated: œ[The European parliament] supports in principle recognition of Palestinian statehood and the two-state solution, and believes these should go hand in hand with the development of peace talks, which should be advanced.
Social Democrat, leftwing and Green members of the European parliament had initially put forward motions for a symbolic vote on Wednesday to call on the EU's 28 members to recognise Palestinian statehood now without conditions.
On a day of intense diplomacy around the Israeli-Palestinian issue, a draft resolution on Palestinian statehood is expected to be tabled later at the UN security council in New York.
Wednesday will also see a rare meeting of the Geneva conventions in Switzerland to discuss human rights in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Although the meeting is being shunned by the US, Australia and Canada, Israeli efforts to persuade European states to stay away from the meeting were rebuffed.
Israel is also boycotting the one-day talks and has accused the host, Switzerland, of contributing to the politicisation of the Geneva conventions on the laws of war.
The judgment on Hamas followed the decision by the general court of the European Union the EU's second highest court that the original listing of the group that governs Gaza had been flawed and based on conclusions derived from the media and internet, not sound legal rulings.
The court added in a statement that Wednesday's decision to remove Hamas from the EU's blacklist was based on procedural errors and did œnot imply any substantive assessment of the question of the classification of Hamas as a terrorist group .
The court's decision followed an appeal filed by Hamas against its inclusion on the blacklist.
Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq welcomed the decision, saying: œThis is the correction of an error and an injustice that was caused to Hamas.
Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said he was not satisfied with the explanation that the delisting was only technical, and called for Hamas's immediate re-designation.
The freeze on Hamas's funds will remain in place for three months pending any appeal by the EU it was reported that several European states were hurrying to provide evidence to demonstrate that Hamas should be listed as a terrorist group.
Hamas had claimed that the decision to put it on the EU terror list was also carried out without giving it an opportunity for a hearing and without sufficient evidence being presented.
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