Germany bans Hamas flag after antisemitic incidents occurred amid escalation
The report stated that the law was proposed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFPALESTINIANS WAVE Hamas flags on the last Friday of Ramadan in protest over the possible eviction of families in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, earlier this month.(photo credit: AMMAR AWAD/REUTERS)
The German government banned the flag of Hamas this week following a spat of antisemitic incidents that took place during the pro-Palestinian protests that took place in the country during the most recent escalation between Israel and allied terror groups in the Gaza Strip last month.According to Deutsche Welle, citing the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, all parties in the coalition of the German government agreed that the symbol should be marked as a symbol of hate following the antisemitic incidents – even though one party raised the constitutional ramifications that could arise from such as ban.According to the report, the law was proposed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party."We do not want the flags of terrorist organizations to be waved on German soil," said a spokesperson for the party Thorsten Frei, according to DW.In Germany last month, the “most violent [antisemitic] incidents were in the southern Berlin district of Neukölln, where demonstrators who gathered in solidarity with Palestinians burned Israeli flags, chanted anti-Israel slogans and waved Hamas banners,” a report in The Guardian noted.The German anti-Israel attacks may have been fueled from Ankara where the pro-Hamas ruling party has used its diaspora for years to increase extremism.In the German city of Mannheim, various arrests were made for hate speech. “In Cologne, a pro-Palestine protest drew 800 participants, twice the number (as in Mannheim) before police broke it up. There were also large gatherings in Hamburg, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Hanover, where calls were made for the dissolution of Israel,” The Guardian noted.At a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Gelsenkirchen one fascist yelled out “s**t Jews.” At the same demonstration, the target of which was a synagogue, Turkish flags were flown while Israeli flags were burned. In Munich a man was called a “Jewish pig” and attacked, although it was not clear if it was linked to anti-Israel incidents.The German parliament has taken action against similar Middle East terror groups in the past.After years of pressure from the US (both the Obama and Trump administrations) and the Israeli government, Germany’s interior minister banned all activities of the Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah within the federal republic’s territory in May of last year.
Israel and the United States have long pushed for Germany to ban the Shi’ite terrorist group. Germany previously drew a distinction between Hezbollah's political arm and its military units, which fought alongside President Bashar Assad's army in Syria.Hezbollah symbols may not be used publicly in any assembly, or in print, audio and visual material in Germany, and its assets will be confiscated “to the benefit of the Federal Republic of Germany,” the Interior Ministry’s press release read.The ban was because Hezbollah is a terrorist group, and also because it “calls for the violent elimination of the State of Israel and questions the right of the State of Israel to exist.Security officials believe that up to 1,050 people in Germany are associated with Hezbollah.Zachary Keyser, Seth J. Frantzman, Lahav Harkov and Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.
