“We will not tolerate anti-Semitism”: Scholz announces a ban on Hamas activities. These three scams are currently being used to spread fake news about Hamas and Israel

After the Islamist Hamas attack on Israel, which left hundreds dead, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced a ban on the organization’s activities in Germany.

In addition, the Palestinian network Samidoun should be banned, as Scholz said in his government statement in the Bundestag on Thursday.

Hamas is already classified as a terrorist organization by the EU and the US. The Samidoun association, which calls itself the Prisoner Solidarity Network, had already celebrated the bloody terrorist attack on Israel on Saturday by handing out sweets on Sonnenallee in Berlin-Neukölln. “This is disgusting. This is inhumane. It contradicts all the values ​​we stand for as a country,” said Scholz.

There should be no tolerance for anti-Semites. The security authorities would enforce this with all strictness, the Chancellor emphasized.

Federal and state law enforcement authorities would hold anyone who does such a thing accountable – using every tool available within the rule of law. “These means expressly include a ban on associations and activities,” Scholz said.

About 450 Hamas supporters in Germany

According to estimates by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Germany, there are approximately 450 people behind Hamas, many of whom are German citizens. There is no official branch of the Islamist group in Germany. Associations close to the movement were banned a few years ago.

The only possible additional measure is the ban on activities announced by Scholz, which will be issued by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The federal government took this route in 2020 – then Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) – with the pro-Iranian Shia militia Hezbollah from Lebanon.

The ban on activities is accompanied by a ban on all meetings of the organization, as a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior explained upon request. The use of Hamas license plates, which is on the EU list of terrorist organizations and classified as a foreign terrorist organization in Germany, is punishable in Germany. “Western states such as Germany are seen by Hamas as a haven in which the organization focuses on raising donations, recruiting new followers and spreading its propaganda.”says the 2022 Office for the Protection of the Constitution report.

According to constitutional protection officials, the Samidoun association belongs to the radical Palestinian organization PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) and is hostile to Israel. The PFLP itself promotes the armed struggle against Israel, but, unlike Hamas, it is not religious. (saw/sda/dpa)