Ansari: Law is not simply a profession
Riverway Law, the South London law firm representing terror group Hamas, has closed down in its current form and is set to reappear as the legal arm of a movement called Riverway to the Sea.
The name is a clear reference to the chant ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’, which many consider antisemitic if understood or intended to refer to the eradication of Israel.
Riverway Law was an immigration law firm run by Fahad Ansari and thrust itself into the spotlight in April when he, together with barristers Frank Magennis of Garden Court Chambers and Daniel Grutters of One Pump Court, drafted an application to the home secretary to deproscribe Hamas under section 4 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
According to Riverway Law’s website, it ceased trading on 29 June, although this will not stop any Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) investigation into Mr Ansari – both shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick and the Campaign Against Antisemitism have made reports to it about him and comments he has made on social media.
The latter said recently that the SRA had confirmed it was investigating Mr Ansari.
The Riverway website said “[we] will soon be reopening a new firm that will be better equipped to deal with the challenges of our times”. It is not clear whether it will be seeking SRA authorisation but the firm will need to be regulated if it is to conduct litigation.
This “restructure” will see the firm become “the legal arm of the newly launched Riverway to the Sea – a movement-embedded legal organisation committed to confronting Zionism through strategic litigation, legal education, and international coordination”.
Mr Ansari said: “We are entering a new chapter where the law is not simply a profession, but a tool of empowerment, resistance, and transformation. Riverway Law stands ready to meet this moment with clarity, courage, and unity.”
He said the traditional solicitors’ firm model – “rigid, hierarchical, and often detached from movement realities” – was “no longer sufficient to meet the urgency or complexity of the legal challenges before us”.
The new Riverway Law Centre would abandon traditional divisions between barristers and solicitors “in favour of a unified legal formation embedded within a global movement – one that enables cross-functional expertise, collective strategy, and a direct line between legal practitioners and the communities they serve”.
Mr Jenrick told the Daily Telegraph: “This isn’t a law firm committed to upholding the rule of law – they are naked activists who seek to weaponise it. The SRA need to expedite their investigation so these disgusting individuals can be brought to heel.”
Mr Magennis, who is outspoken in just how much he detests Zionism but has also protested about being identified with his client, Hamas, is a director of the new organisation.
He said: “From the picket line to the courtroom, we are forging new tools of resistance. The centre is where radical legal education meets organised action – a place where the law becomes a living weapon in the struggle for liberation.”
Riverway insisted that Israel, Zionism and Zionists “are vulnerable to challenge in a wide range of legal contexts, including: employment tribunal proceedings, asylum claims representing Palestinian and anti-Zionist Jewish claimants, defamation, regulatory proceedings (GMC, SRA, BSB, Charities Commission, TRA etc), public law, and even criminal law”.
you should be charged with Treason along with your client