After the Home Office rejected the bid, Ansari posted on X that Hamas would appeal the “perverse” decision.
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Several at the demonstration waved Hezbollah flags[Missing Credit]
The bandanna sported by Ansari at the rally bears a striking resemblance to those now worn by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
It featured the same white-on-green colour scheme and included the same Arabic phrase used on flags and sashes paraded by the terror group, which translates as: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.” The message in and of itself is uncontroversial, being one of the five pillars of Islam –the shahada – and a basic tenet of the religion.
Hezbollah flags were visible throughout the 7,000-strong demonstration, with protesters around Ansari shouting “we are all Hezbollah” and carrying placards stating the same.
Some protesters stomped on an image of then US President George Bush while chanting “Allah Akbar", and carried signs likening Israel to Nazi Germany. One poster featured swastikas next to a crossed-out Magen David.
Placards compared Israel to Nazi Germany[Missing Credit]
At the time of the rally, Hezbollah had not yet been banned as a terrorist organisation in the UK. The Iran-backed Shia militia, however, has engaged in violent activities since its inception in 1981, including the 1994 suicide bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.
The group’s military wing has been banned in Britain since 2008, with the entire organisation proscribed in 2019, when the government stated it was no longer able to distinguish between the group’s military and political arms.
The JC previously reported that Ansari – who has also worked for Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) – paid tribute to the late leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed by an Israeli strike in March, writing on social media, “Ismail Haniyeh has been martyred.”
On X, he has described Hamas as a “legitimate resistance movement”.
His firm has since been reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) by Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary.
London-based Riverway Law lost their application to have Hamas removed from the UK's list of proscribed terrorist organisations (Credit: X/Riverway Law)[Missing Credit]
In response to a question about the 2006 protest, Ansari defended his involvement. Writing on X, he said: “Proscription laws are not retrospective. It's not an offence to have supported a group before it was banned. Hezbollah was widely supported in 2006 by the British public for its defence of Lebanon. It's also not an offence to support self-defence against military invasion.”
He added, “It was the summer of 2006. I was 24 years old. Israel was bombing Lebanon with British weapons. And a Labour PM was refusing to call for a ceasefire.
“Hezbollah (not then proscribed) was defending its people in Lebanon and like many many others at the time, I supported that.”
“So broad was the support against Israel's incursions into Lebanon that a Guardian/ICM poll at the time indicated that only 22 per cent of the British public believed Israel's actions were proportionate, a view shared by many senior politicians. A lawful protest was arranged. I attended.
"I took part in a chant at the protest, ‘with blood, with guns, we'll free Lebanon’. Nobody was ever arrested for those chants. There's a reason. It's not unlawful. It's blood and guns that freed Lebanon. It's blood and guns which are now being used to free Ukraine from Russia.”
Ansari went on: “The enablers of Israeli genocide are doing their best to intimidate supporters of Palestinian freedom [and] distract from Gaza where famine has just been declared. I've asked what the relevance is of my presence at a lawful protest 19 yrs ago. I'm not the story. The genocide is.”
The JC approached Ansari for further comment.
