A new German intelligence report asserts the number of Hezbollah members and supporters has climbed from 950 in 2017 to 1,050 in 2018 amid rising Jew-hatred in the federal republic.
The Jerusalem Post reviewed the hair-raising new numbers from the intelligence document of the German state of Lower Saxony.
The 192-page intelligence report authored by the intelligence agents from the state’s security service noted 150 Hezbollah operatives are situated in Lower Saxony. The report covers 2018 and was released on May 22, 2019.
“Hezbollah denies the right of existence of the State of Israel and fights it with terrorist means,” the intelligence report wrote. “In Germany, the followers of Hezbollah maintain organizational and ideological and cohesion in local mosques associations that are financed primarily by donations.”
“Hezbollah is against the idea of international understanding and the peaceful coexistence of peoples,” the report noted. “The ‘party’ of Hezbollah was founded under the authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran, representing the most radical party of the Lebanese Shi’ite community.”
The report said the model for Hezbollah is the Iranian regime’s revolutionary system and the “teaching of the Iranian revolutionary leader [Ruhollah] Khomeini.”
The intelligence report cited Hezbollah 30 times and said Hezbollah supporters are active in the following cities and town in Lower Saxony: Hannover, Osnabrück and Uelzen. The report noted Hezbollah supporters are also present in the region of south Lower Saxony.
The document mentions travel of functionaries between Lebanon and Germany for the purpose of connecting to Hezbollah.
The reported increase of Hezbollah members in Germany comes amid urgent calls to ban all of Hezbollah from the US government and Germany’s Central Council of Jews. On Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel that he wishes Germany would “follow Britain’s example” and outlaw the terrorist group. The United Kingdom proscribed all of Hezbollah a terrorist entity in February.
In addition to the UK, the US, Canada, the Netherlands, the Arab League and Israel all classify Hezbollah a terrorist entity. Germany and the EU defined Hezbollah’s so-called military wing a terrorist entity while allowing for its “political” wing to raise funds, recruit new members and spread jihadi and lethal antisemitic ideologies in Europe. Hezbollah’s leadership, in contrast to Germany and the EU, defines its organization as an unified entity without wings.
US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell tweeted on Sunday: “Allowing Hezbollah supporters to organize freely is creating instability and fear. Hezbollah is on the hunt for more money to fund more terror – they must be stopped.” Grenell spoke at a demonstration against the pro-Hezbollah, pro-Iranian regime al-Quds Day march on Sunday in Berlin. He wrote on Twitter, “Today we marched against Al Quds in Berlin – and my team asked me to wear a bulletproof vest because of their hate and support for terrorism. This group should be widely condemned.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her interior minister, Horst Seehofer, ignored an urgent plea from the country’s nearly 100,000-member Jewish community to outlaw Hezbollah.
When repeatedly asked last week by The Jerusalem Post if the German government – in response to a demand by the Central Council of Jews – plans to ban Hezbollah, Merkel and Seehofer refused to answer.
The president of the council, Dr. Josef Schuster, said on Monday that “a full ban of Hezbollah’s organization has already happened in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom,” adding that “Hezbollah is heavily financed by Iran, and poses, in its entirety, a threat to the entire world.”
The US Embassy in Germany wrote on its Twitter feed on Monday: “Germany’s federal courts decided years ago that Hezbollah is a unified organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Symbols of Hezbollah are banned, why not the entire organization?”
“We were concerned to see Jews discouraged from wearing the yarmulke in public out of safety concerns. None of us should shrink in the face of prejudice,” Pompeo said at a press conference in Berlin with Berlin.
Last Saturday, Germany’s federal commissioner to combat antisemitism Dr. Felix Klein announced: “I can’t tell Jews to wear the kippah everywhere all the time in Germany.” Hezbollah has been involved in antisemitic incidents in Germany. Klein wrote that 81% of Jews in Germany feel threatened by Muslim-based antisemitism.