Germany bans Hezbollah’s activities, police raid mosque organisations in several cities

Via EJP:

Germany has decided to ban all activities of Hezbollah on German soil as the country’s authorities have classified the Lebanese Shiite group as a terrorist organization.

Raids took place in several German federal states concurrently, a spokesperson for German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Thursday. He said that even in times of crisis, the “rule of law is able to act.”

The police raids are focused on four mosque associations in Berlin, Dortmund, Bremen and Münster accused of belonging to Hezbollah. German Foreign Minister Heiko Haas said that Hzebollah “denies Israel’s right to exist, threatens with violence and terror and massively upgrades its rocket arsenal.”

His Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz praised Germany’s move. “I applaud the German govt for the decision to designate Hezbollah a terror organization. In my conversations with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, he promised to help and I thank him,” Katz tweeted. “Hezbollah is a terrorist organization and must be treated as such.”

The minister called on other European countries and the EU to do the same. In 2013, the EU banned Hezbollah’s military wing but not its political work in Europe. The UK designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in February last year.

read more