Israeli envoy urges Germany to ban Hezbollah

Israeli Ambassador to Germany Jeremy Issacharoff has stepped up his push for the German government to ban activities of the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist organization in the federal republic.

“The decision of the Bundestag, which calls for the prohibition of Hezbollah activities, came at the right time and is very important,” Issacharoff said, German newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung reported on Wednesday.

In December, the governing coalition parties passed a Bundestag resolution urging the federal government to accept a ban on Hezbollah activities.

Issacharoff hopes that means measures against Hezbollah will be adopted. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Interior Minister Horst Seehoffer have vehemently resisted outlawing Hezbollah in Germany.

Some 1,050 Hezbollah operatives raise funds and recruit new members in the federal republic, according to German intelligence reports, The Jerusalem Post reported last year. Hezbollah contributes to rising antisemitism in Germany, including calls for the destruction of Israel.

In 2012, Hezbollah operatives blew up an Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, murdering five Israelis and their Bulgarian Muslim bus driver.

Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, the US, Israel, the Arab League and a number of Latin America countries have classified Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist entity.

Germany and the EU have merely banned Hezbollah’s so-called “military wing” while allowing its political arm to operate. Hezbollah describes itself as a unified organization without arms.

“For anyone who knows Hezbollah’s terrorist acts, there is no difference between the military and civilian wings of this organization,” Issacharoff said. “The Bundestag’s call to outlaw this group as a whole reflects a precise assessment of the situation.”

US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, currently the acting director of national intelligence, took the lead in urging Germany to ban Hezbollah. He has authored opinion articles calling for Hezbollah to be designated a terrorist entity in Germany. Grenell urged a Hezbollah ban in every meeting he held with German officials, the Post learned last year.

The anti-Hezbollah resolution is an “important building block in the fight against antisemitism,” Social Democratic Party politician Eva Högl said.