By Benjamin Weinthal
The United Kingdom’s Home Secretary Sajid Javid will designate the entire Lebanese organization Hezbollah as a terrorist movement at next week’s Conservative Party conference.
London-based The Jewish Chronicle first reported Javid’s anti-Hezbollah terror classification on Thursday.The EU proscribed Hezbollah’s so-called military wing a terrorist organization in 2013. The terror classification arose because Hezbollah operatives blew up an Israeli tour bus in Bulgaria in 2012, murdering five Israelis and their Muslim Bulgarian bus driver. The terror act resulted in injuries to 32 Israelis.Britain banned Hezbollah’s military wing in 2008 because the Lebanese militia attacked UK soldiers in Iraq. However, the United Kingdom allows Hezbollah’s political wing to operate.
The United States, Canada, the Arab League, the Netherlands and Israel consider Hezbollah to be a unified terrorist entity without separate military and political wings.
According to The Jewish Chronicle, Javid “will use his speech at next week’s Conservative Party annual conference to announce the move, which has long been called for by the Jewish community and others concerned with terrorism.”
The Chronicle wrote, “Mr. Javid – who is a staunch ally of the Jewish community – has seized on the Home Office assessments, which say Hezbollah ‘is committed to armed resistance to the state of Israel and aims to seize all Palestinian territories and Jerusalem from Israel,’” and “its military wing supports terrorism in Iraq and the Palestinian territories.”Furthermore, the newspaper reported, “Mr. Javid is understood to have received strong backing for his decision to certify Hezbollah as an illegal terrorist organization from new Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.”
Hunt, according to the Chronicle, labeled Hezbollah an “outrageous, disgusting” organization and sought to outlaw the entire Lebanese Shi’ite organization since former foreign secretary Boris Johnson departed his post.
Hezbollah is already considered a terror group by the US, Canada, Israel and the Arab League. The Iran-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah has played a key role in keeping Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in power.
If Javid delivers and proscribes all of Hezbollah a terrorist organization, the ban will stand in sharp contrast to Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s praise for Hezbollah as “friends.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has steadfastly refused to outlaw all of Hezbollah. German intelligence agencies say there are 950 Hezbollah members in the federal republic who raise funds and recruit new members.
Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, has experienced a growth of Hezbollah members. According to the state’s 2017 intelligence report, the number of Hezbollah members increased from 100 in 2015, to 105 in 2016. Armin Laschet, the governor of the state, has declined to take measures to close down Hezbollah activity in his state.
“Israel is the enemy – we carry out resistance,” said in 2017 Hassan Jawad, chairman of the Hezbollah-affiliated imam Mahdi center in the city of Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia.
On the other side of the Atlantic, US Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., a Democrat from New Jersey, praised the passage of anti-Hezbollah legislation, named the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Amendments Act of 2018.
According to a statement from Pascrell’s office, “The bill will target with corrective sanctions foreign governments that provide support to the Iran-backed terror organization.”
Pascrell co-sponsored the companion House legislation.
“Any day Congress can take action to weaken Hezbollah’s ability to spread terror and threaten our ally Israel is a good day,” said Pascrell. “Through the support of Iranian hardliners and other bad actors, Hezbollah has been allowed to build its sinister capacity and raise the specter of harm against our allies throughout the Middle East. This legislation will help impose real consequences on Hezbollah and its accomplices. Any foreign governments or groups that seek to aid Hezbollah with arms or financial support will be subject to crippling economic sanctions. We must do more to more to take apart Hezbollah so that it and its supporters in Iran can no longer threaten Israeli, American, or world security.”
Pascrell, a strong advocate of Israel’s security, has a long record of sponsoring and passing legislation targeting Iran’s ballistic missile system, and urging the EU to designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
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