BICOM

The UK Government has decided to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, ending an anomaly where only its military wing was illegal.

A report in the Jewish Chronicle said that Home Secretary Sajid Javid “will use his speech at next week’s Conservative Party annual conference to announce the move, which has long been called for by the Jewish community and others concerned with terrorism”. The report says Home Secretary Javid has received “strong backing” to proscribe all of Hezbollah from new Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who has called the group an “outrageous, disgusting” organisation. Government sources later clarified that the announcement might not be made at the party conference but was imminent.

Hezbollah’s military wing has been proscribed under terrorism legislation since 2008, following an attack on UK soldiers in Iraq attributed to Hezbollah, but its political wing was not banned under UK law. This has allowed open expressions of support for Hezbollah in the UK without legal sanction.

Hezbollah is already considered a terrorist group by the US, Canada, Israel and the Arab League. The EU proscribed Hezbollah’s military wing as terrorist organisation in 2013 following a Hezbollah bombing in Burgas in Bulgaria in 2012 which killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver.

Home Office assessments have reportedly stated that Hezbollah ‘is committed to armed resistance to the State of Israel and aims to seize all Palestinian territories and Jerusalem from Israel,’” and “its military wing supports terrorism in Iraq and the Palestinian territories”.

In January, members of Parliament debated extending the ban to the entire Hezbollah organisation.

According to a non-binding resolution approved by Parliament, the ban should be extended because “Hezbollah is a terrorist organisation driven by an antisemitic ideology that seeks the destruction of Israel; notes that Hezbollah declares itself to be one organisation without distinguishable political or military wings; is concerned that the military wing of that organisation is proscribed, but its political wing is not; and calls on the Government to include Hezbollah in its entirety on the list of proscribed organisations”.