TerrorismExperts Split on Impact of Germany’s Hezbollah Ban
Germany’s recent decision to ban the political activities of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has sparked a debate among experts, with some believing the move was necessary while others arguing it would have little impact on Hezbollah’s terrorist activities.
Germany’s recent decision to ban the political activities of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has sparked a debate among experts, with some believing the move was necessary while others arguing it would have little impact on Hezbollah’s terrorist activities.
German authorities last week declared the Iranian-backed group a “Shiite terrorist organization,” outlawing its activity on German soil. Police also carried out raids on mosques and community centers with suspected links to the extremist group in different parts of Germany.
“Germany’s designation is a recognition of Hezbollah’s unitary nature – that it has no separate military or political wings as the EU declared in its 2013 designation,” said Josh Lipowsky, a senior researcher at the Washington-based Counter Extremism Project (CEP).
The European Union considers Hezbollah’s military wing a terrorist organization, while allowing its political wing to operate in the bloc’s countries. The Netherlands and Germany are the only EU members that recognize Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization. The U.K. dropped the distinction last year, but it is no longer part of the EU.
In 1997, Hezbollah was designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
Previous Actions
Experts said the decision came after a series of actions taken by German authorities in the past few years against the Shiite group.
“The first real action that the German government took was in 2008 when it banned Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV station [from] broadcasting in Germany,” said Hans-Jakob Schindler, a terrorism expert based in Berlin.
“In 2014, they banned an alleged charity that was actually a front for the Martyrs Organization of Hezbollah in Germany [but it] was an orphan kids project in Lebanon. … It was organization which had a charitable status in Germany but was connected to financing the families of killed Hezbollah fighters rather than supporting actual orphans in Lebanon,” he told VOA.
In 2015, Germany’s Supreme Court ruled that Hezbollah was an organization that disrupted global peace.
Last December, Germany’s parliament called on the government to declare Hezbollah in its entirety a terrorist organization, but the government rejected the proposal at the time.
The New Ban
The recent German move effectively outlaws public support for Hezbollah on German soil. Supporters of the group are no longer allowed to express support for it.
According to German law, an organization that has no formal branch in Germany can’t be outlawed as such. But the new government measure against Hezbollah’s activities has the same legal consequences.
