Last Friday, the Home Secretary confirmed that the government intended to proscribe Hamas. A fiction has evolved in which the terrorist organisation is deemed to have two parts, one military and one political, with the former banned but not the latter.

In reality, there is only one Hamas and it is a welcome — if long overdue — move to recognise this and proscribe it all. Within two days of Ms Patel’s announcement, the reality of Hamas’ murderous intent was again made clear with the gunning down of Eli Kay in Jerusalem — killed by Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, a member of Hamas’ so-called political wing, for no reason other than that he is Jewish.

Many others would have been murdered had the Israeli police not been so swift in shooting the terrorist.

This is important to understand. Hamas aims not only at the elimination of Israel — and Israeli Jews — but at the elimination of all Jews, everywhere.

Its charter is unambiguous: “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight Jews and kill them…The Hamas regards itself the spearhead and the vanguard of the circle of struggle against World Zionism... Islamic groups all over the Arab world should also do the same, since they are best equipped for their future role in the fight against the warmongering Jews.”

But no matter how clear Hamas’ words may be, the coverage of Eli Kay’s murder reflected a familiar pattern. The default position of many news organisations is that a dead Jew is an irrelevance, while a dead Hamas member must be some sort of martyr.

On Monday, for example, a Manchester Evening News headline read: “Palestinian shot dead after holy site killing”. Such headlines demonstrate the refusal of so many to see Hamas for what it is.

That does not, of course, include the government — and, it is good to be able to say, the opposition.