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** Germany's Partial Ban of Hezbollah: A Half-Measure ([link removed])
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by Soeren Kern • May 2, 2020 at 5:00 am
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fer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gatestoneinstitute.org%2F15964%2Fgermany-hezbollah-partial-ban&pubid=ra-52f7af5809191749&ct=1&title=Germany%27s+Partial+Ban+of+Hezbollah%3A+A+Half-Measure [link removed]
* The ban is in fact a compromise measure between German lawmakers who want to take a harder line against Iran and those who do not. As a result, the ban falls far short of a complete prohibition on Hezbollah and appears aimed at providing the German government with political cover that allows Germany to claim that it has banned the group even if it has not.
* According to the German Parliament, the Bundestag, a complete ban of Hezbollah is impossible because the group's structures in Germany are "not currently ascertainable."
* It is utterly implausible that Germany, one of the wealthiest and most technologically advanced countries in Europe, is unable to ascertain the organizational structure of Hezbollah within its own borders. More plausible is that Germany wants to project a public appearance of cracking down on Hezbollah while maintaining direct access to its leadership.
* "Your resolution has two central weaknesses. The first weakness is that you are asking for only an activity ban (Betätigungsverbot). We want a specific organizational ban (Organisationsverbot). According to the Crime Fighting Law (Verbrechensbekämpfungsgesetz) of 1994, the activity ban is the weaker legal means when compared to an organizational ban. There is no reason in the world why you would fight a terrorist organization with the weaker means and not the stronger." — Beatrix von Storch, deputy chairwoman of the AfD parliamentary group in the German Bundestag.
* "What is needed is the complete ban of Hezbollah. Hezbollah's propaganda and terror financing in Germany must be stopped. The mosque associations that exist must be disbanded, and most importantly, Hezbollah supporters must be deported. This, by the way, is also demanded by the Bundestag's Anti-Semitism Resolution, which expressly calls for the deportation of supporters of anti-Semitism. If this does not apply to supporters of Hezbollah, which wants to send Jews to the gas chambers, and wants to destroy Israel, then to whom could it apply?" — Beatrix von Storch.
* "Today's completely late action by the federal government is primarily a symbolic gesture. If the government were really serious about annihilating Hezbollah in Germany, it should have established a special commission and provided the security authorities with financial and human resources to identify and dismantle the group nationwide." — Stefan Schubert, German security expert.

The German government, after years of equivocating, has announced what amounts to a partial ban on the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. Pictured: Police in Berlin raid al-Irschad mosque, which is linked to Hezbollah, on April 30, 2020, following the announcement of the partial ban. (Photo by Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images)

The German government, after years of equivocating, has announced what amounts to a partial ban on the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah — Arabic for "The Party of Allah" — in Germany.

The so-called ban — supported by the center-right Christian Democrats and the center-left Social Democrats, the two parties that make up Germany's ruling coalition, and also by the classical liberal Free Democrats — has been hailed as "important," "significant," and "long overdue."

The ban is in fact a compromise measure between German lawmakers who want to take a harder line against Iran and those who do not. As a result, the ban falls far short of a complete prohibition on Hezbollah and appears aimed at providing the German government with political cover that allows Germany to claim that it has banned the group even if it has not.

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