TerrorismGermany Bans Hezbollah

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer on Thursday banned all Hezbollah activities in the country. The Interior ministry also confirmed that “police measures are underway in several federal states concurrently,” and added that even in times of medical crisis, the “rule of law is able to act.”

The police raided several buildings, including four mosques and Islamic associations in Berlin, Dortmund, Bremen, and Münster where, the police said, Hezbollah supporters were active.

Hezbollah, an Iran-supported Lebanese Shiite organization, consists of political and military wings. It fought alongside Iranian soldiers to secure the regime of President Bashar al-Assad during the 8-yers civil war in Syria.

Until Thursday, Germany distinguished between the political and the armed wings of Hezbollah, banning the latter but allowing the former to operate in Germany. On Thursday, the German government designated the group in its entirety as a terrorist organization.

“Hezbollah openly calls for the violent elimination of the State of Israel and questions the right of the State of Israel to exist,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

“The organization is therefore fundamentally against the concept of international understanding, regardless of whether it presents itself as a political, social or military structure.”

The ban criminalizes public expression of support for Hezbollah within Germany. Followers can no longer display the flag of the Lebanese militia, a green rifle on a yellow background.

The BBC reports that, additionally, the total ban has made it easier for authorities take action against the group, which in turn makes it more difficult for Hezbollah to conduct transnational activities using Germany as a transit point. 

Analysts note that the ban could strain relations between Germany and Iran, but Iran is dependent on good relations with Germany and the European Union. The importance of this relationship was demonstrated recently when the EU began to use an EU-Iran trading mechanism created to skirt U.S.-imposed sanctions and export medical supplies to the pandemic-hit country. 

The ban could also damage Germany’s relationship with Lebanon, where Hezbollah, in addition to dominating the country’s southern and eastern regions, is the dominant force in the national government, which runs the rest of the country.

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) welcomed Germany’s move to ban Hezbollah, calling it a “welcome, much-anticipated and significant German decision” in a statement.

“We now hope other European nations will take a close look at Germany’s decision and reach the same conclusion about the true nature of Hezbollah,” wrote AJC CEO David Harris. “Permitting its [Hezbollah’s] ‘political’ wing to operate on European soil allows for active recruitment, fundraising, and the poisonous spread of anti-Semitism,” the statement read.

Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Israel Katz, issued similar praise for the decision. “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.”

Maas tweeted that, “Hezbollah denies Israel’s right to exist, threatens violence and terror and continues to massively upgrade its missile arsenal. In Germany, we have to exhaust the rule of law to tackle Hezbollah’s criminal and terrorist activities.”

The German domestic intelligence service estimates that about 1,050 people in Germany are active members of the Lebanese militant group.

Germany has been under pressure for several years to ban the organization, but the calls became even louder after the U.K. government imposed an outright ban on the group in February 2019. 

The United States, too, has been pressuring Germany to ban the group.

Following last fall anti-Semitic attack in the city of Halle, the interior ministry said it was considering a total ban of the group.

Hezbollah’s annual budget is estimated to be around $1 billion. About $700 million of which is given to it annually by Iran, and $300 million is earned by the organization r year through international transactions, including drug smuggling and trafficking in counterfeit products.

Banning Hezbollah from Major European countries would it difficult for the group top continue its illegal international trading.

“Germany is incredibly important for Hezbollah, because Germany is an Eldorado for money laundering,” political scientist and scholar of Islam Ralph Ghadban told DW.