BERLIN — The intelligence agency for the state-city of Berlin registered May 19 a dramatic increase of violent supporters of the Islamic Republic of Iran in its newly released report.
In the section of the intelligence report titled “Other violent Islamist groups,” the agency confirmed 40 loyal supporters of the Islamic Republic for the period 2019. The previous year’s report disclosed no supporters of the radical anti-Western clerical regime.
US government administrations under presidents Obama and Trump have classified Iran’s regime as the worst state-sponsor of terrorism.
According to the 214 intelligence report reviewed by The Jerusalem Post, “There are other violent Islamist organizations, some of which are terrorist, particularly in the Middle East. The other part does not use violence itself, but is in favor of violence. The potential of people in this area has increased due to the statistical recording of the potential of Iranians who are loyal to the regime.”
The intelligence agency, formally called Berlin’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution, reported 250 Hezbollah members in Berlin.
Last month, the German interior ministry outlawed all Hezbollah activities within the federal republic’s territories. It is unclear how the Berlin authorities plan to enforce the ban of Hezbollah activities with respect to the 250 Hezbollah members. Germany’s interior ministry defined Hezbollah a terrorist movement.
The Iranian-backed Sunni terrorist organization Hamas has 70 members in Berlin, according to the intelligence report.
The intelligence agency, which is the rough equivalent of Shin Bet, termed the annual al-Quds rally in Berlin an antisemitic event.
The founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, created the al-Quds Day in 1979 that advocates the destruction of the Jewish state. Berlin has permitted an annual al-Quds Day rally each year since 1996. “The use and chanting of antisemitic slogans” is a hallmark of the al-Quds Day , wrote the intelligence report.
The document noted that “ in the campaign to mobilize the demonstration on al-Quds Day 2019, the organizers advertised on the Internet with the slogan ‘Demonstration for a Just Peace in Palestine’ and the hashtag ;#BoycottApartheidIsrael.”’
The al-Quds Day rally attracts supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign targeting Israel. The Bundestag passed a resolution last year defining BDS as antisemitic.
Ulrike Becker, head of the research department for the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin, said on Friday: “The Berlin Senate should work towards a legally binding ban on the antisemitic Quds march. Even if the organizers endeavor to present themselves as an independent German association of Shiite communities, the organization of the Quds march in Germany cannot be separated from the organizational structures of the Iranian regime and Hezbollah, which is dependent on it. We therefore welcome the ban on Hezbollah. Like Hezbollah, the Quds march is directed against the idea of international understanding and spreads anti-Zionist and antisemitic propaganda. "
She added that “It is important to counter antisemitism very clearly, regardless of the spectrum from which it comes - whether from the right, from the left, from the center of society or from the Islamist spectrum. If antisemitism is not ostracized and pushed back, the ground is prepared for antisemitic violence. We therefore welcome the intention of Berlin's senator Andreas Geisel to examine a ban on the Quds march. ”