section_path: Foreign relations/Terrorist designation
section_name: Terrorist designation
paragraph_text: Terrorist designation
  
  The United States designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation in 1995, as did Canada in November 2002, and the United Kingdom in November 2021. In May 2021, the Organization of American States designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation. The European Union so designated Hamas's military wing in 2001 and, under US pressure, designated Hamas in 2003. Hamas challenged this decision, which was upheld by the European Court of Justice in July 2017. Japan and New Zealand have designated the military wing of Hamas as a terrorist organisation. The organisation is banned in Jordan. In late February 2024, New Zealand re-designated the entire Hamas organisation as a terror entity. In September 2024, Switzerland approved a draft law on to ban the group. In April 2025, Paraguay expanded its designation of Hamas as a terrorist organisation.
  
  In April 2025, Hamas filed a legal case in Britain appealing its designation as a terrorist group. The filing argues that Hamas has never engaged in an armed operation outside of historic Palestine and is not a threat to Western nations. Hamas politician Mousa Abu Marzook submitted a written statement arguing, "Hamas is not a terrorist group. It is a Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project."
  
  Hamas is not regarded as a terrorist organisation by Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Russia, Norway, Turkey, China, Egypt, Syria, and Brazil. "Many other states, including Russia, China, Syria, Turkey and Iran consider the (armed) struggle waged by Hamas to be legitimate."
  
  Tobias Buck, a journalist with the British Financial Times newspaper wrote in 2012 that Hamas is "listed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU, but few dare to treat it that way" and in the Arab and Muslim world it had lost its pariah status with its emissaries welcomed in capitals of Islamic countries. In the early 2010s, Hamas was considered a terrorist group by some governments and academics, others regarded Hamas as a complex organisation, with terrorism as only one component.