The Starmer government has formally announced that it will be removing Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from its list of banned, or ‘proscribed’, terrorist organisations.

HTS, effectively ISIS in Syria and disowned by terrorist group al-Qaeda as too extreme, now runs Syria — despite resistance from groups opposing its slaughter of Syria’s religious minorities. Israel has a love hate relationship with them, attacking Syria’s arms depots and bombing civilian areas while seizing significant areas of Syrian territory on the one hand and engaging in direct talks for normalisation on the other.

HTS not ISIS, I promise!

HTS’s ISIS links have been undiluted since the takeover, with footage showing attacks on minorities and groups of ISIS-badged militants promising to drink their blood — but politicians and media in the UK and US immediately embarked on a campaign to rehabilitate its image, with the Trump government welcoming HTS president Al-Julani (now rebranded as Ahmed al-Sharaa) to the White House last month and Starmer inviting him to visit the UK.

Starmer’s move to ‘deproscribe’ HTS comes as his minions at the Home Office continue to fight in court to maintain the proscription of non-violent anti-genocide group Palestine Action (PA). The government banned PA in July and then embarked on a mass arrest campaign of protesters, under the Terrorism Act which carries prison sentences of up to fourteen years, for peacefully opposing the decision to designate a non-violent group as terrorists.

PA no, HTS yes

Starmer and then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper banned PA to please pro-Israel groups like the so-called Campaign Against Antisemitism and We Believe in Israel, who promptly boasted of the ban as their achievement. The government then went to court to try to prevent a judicial review of the legality of the ban, which the United Nations, human rights groups and legal groups have roundly condemned — it consequently lost its appeal last week and the judicial review will now proceed.

Un-banning a violent terrorist group while fighting to keep a non-violent group banned would seem deranged to any sane observer. But it begins to make (sick, perverse) sense when Israel and the Zionist lobby are factored in. Despite Israel’s mass bombing of ‘his’ country immediately after he took control, Al-Julani — always a CIA construct according to the most knowledgeable observers — promptly declared that Israel is not an enemy of Syria. For all its peacefulness non-violent PA, of course, would remain implacably opposed to Israel’s occupation, apartheid and genocide.

Actual deaths deathsquads who bow the knee to Israel get un-banned, while non-violent groups who won’t are terrorists. Starmer’s (and Israel’s) Britain.

By Skwawkbox

This post was originally published on Canary.