Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Chairman Mark Levenson, Esq. released the following statement:
The ZOA praises the German government for banning the entire Hezbollah terrorist organization, without distinguishing among Hezbollah’s purported political, military and social arms. Hezbollah’s various purported arms all work together to achieve Hezbollah’s and Iran’s terrorist and genocidal objectives.
Since 1997, the United States has designated Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization (“FTO”). As of 2017, the U.S. had designated 400 Hezbollah terror operatives and affiliates. Since 2017, the U.S. administration has designated at least another 50 Hezbollah-related entities and individuals as foreign terrorists, including members of the Lebanese parliament who abused their positions to serve the terrorist objectives of Hezbollah and its primary benefactor, Iran. The U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has designated various U.S. charities for funneling money to Hezbollah.
In July 2019, senior U.S. officials called on other nations to ban the entire Hezbollah terrorist organization, stating: “Just this year the UK designated the entirety of the [Hezbollah] terrorist group. We believe it is time for other nations around the world to recognize that there is no distinction between Hezbollah’s political and military wing.”
ZOA appreciates that Germany has now recognized that the entirety of Hezbollah is a terrorist entity, and that Germany is taking action to counter Hezbollah’s activities.
Countries that have designated Hezbollah in its entirety as a terror organization now include: the U.S., Israel, the Arab League, Argentina, Bahrain, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Guatamela, Honduras, the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Netherlands, Paraguay, and the United Kingdom.
Some countries, including the European Union, Australia, New Zealand have only designated Hezbollah’s “military wing” as a terrorist organization, despite the fact that all of Hezbollah’s operations are intertwined and serve its terror agenda. ZOA calls on these nations, and all nations, to fully designate the Hezbollah terror group as an FTO.
History: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) established Hezbollah in 1982 to export Iranian terror around the world. In 1983, at the Iranian regime’s direction, Hezbollah carried out suicide bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut (murdering 63 innocent persons, including 17 Americans), and the U.S. marine barracks in Beirut (murdering 241 innocent American marines and other U.S. service personnel). Hezbollah suicide attacks from 1982-1986 murdered 659 people. Iran/Hezbollah also provided explosives, planning and training for the deadly terrorist bombings of Khobar Towers (in 1996, 19 innocent Americans murdered and hundreds wounded); and the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (in 1998, over innocent 200 people killed). The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York also concluded that Iran and Hezbollah played key roles in planning 9-11 and training the 9-11 terrorists. In January 2020, Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah called for all of Iran’s allies to exact “revenge” on the United States.
Hezbollah has carried out numerous terror and rocket attacks against Israelis and Jews, including bombing the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1992 (murdering 19 innocent people); bombing the Buenos Aires Jewish Community Center in in 1994 (murdering 85 innocent people and injuring hundreds); firing 4,000 rockets into Israel during the 2006 Lebanon war; planting explosives near the border that have injured Israelis; and firing further missiles into Israel, including firing missiles into an Israeli farming community in September 2019. Hezbollah continues to threaten Israel with annihilation; is expanding its massive missile arsenal, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701; is manufacturing new precision-guided missiles; and is converting its huge arsenal of 150,000 rockets pointed at Israel into precision weapons.