UK
Barrister representing Hamas says legal bid aims to “end Israel”
Franck Magennis called Israel an ‘apartheid state’ and said Gaza was a ‘concentration camp’
May 1, 2025 16:01
Franck Magennis called Israel an ‘apartheid state’ and said Gaza was a ‘concentration camp’
May 1, 2025 16:01Franck Magennis, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers acting in a legal challenge to remove Hamas from the UK’s list of proscribed terrorist organisations, has said that the goal of the application is to “end Israel”.
Speaking on the Blood Brothers podcast hosted by 5Pillars founder Dilly Hussain, Magennis stated: “I hope to expand the consensus by a bit, so that we can think about what it would mean to end this genocide; to end Israel, which I think is what my client wants.”
The podcast was released shortly after London-based law firm Riverway Law submitted a 106-page appeal to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, requesting that the government revoke its terrorist designation of Hamas.
The group has been proscribed in the UK since 2001 and is also listed as a terrorist organisation by the US, EU, Canada and other countries.
In the interview, Magennis repeatedly referred to Gaza as a “concentration camp” and described Israel as an “apartheid state.”
He said: “You can’t understand that it’s a concentration camp without understanding that Israel is an apartheid state.”
Magennis also said: “Zionism is the ideology that there should be a Jewish state and the consequences of the emergence of that ideology in the form of the state of so-called Israel has been a catastrophe.”
Elsewhere, discussing the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, in which over 1,200 people were killed in Israel - including more than 700 civilians - host Dilly Hussain referred to the victims as “off-duty military personnel, active military personnel and others.”
On LBC earlier this month Magennis alleged that Zionism “illegitimately claims a mandate to speak on behalf of all Jews,” and described Israel as “an ethnostate that chooses to self-racialize and describe itself as the Jewish state”.
Magennis practices public, civil, and criminal defence law. His work focusses on challenging alleged rights violations by governments, employers, and landlords, according to his chambers profile.
He has previously worked on legal claims connected to what he terms “Palestinian emancipation from Israeli occupation” and is currently developing legal arguments concerning the international crime of apartheid as a basis for asylum.
Responding to the legal challenge, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper reaffirmed the government’s stance on Hamas in an interview with LBC earlier this month.
“Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It was a barbaric terrorist attack on October 7. Hamas has long been a terrorist organisation. We maintain our view about the barbaric nature of this organisation.”
Garden Court Chambers has been contacted for comment.