Germany's Bundestag
Germany's BundestagiStock

The heads of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Thursday welcomed the German Parliament’s resolution calling on the government to ban Hezbollah activities in Germany.

“We commend the Bundestag for voting overwhelmingly in favor of a measure requesting that the German government institute a ban on the terrorist organization Hezbollah within Germany. We urge the government to act quickly to follow up,” said Arthur Stark, Chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of the Conference of Presidents.

“An Iranian proxy with the blood of countless innocents on its hands, Hezbollah conducts criminal operations in the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere to finance its terror activities around the world. No quarter should be given to these purveyors of murder and Jew-hatred, who are unyielding in their quest to destroy the Jewish State,” they added.

“We look forward to seeing this implemented and encourage other countries to join Germany in banning Hezbollah,” concluded Stark and Hoenlein.

Thursday’s resolution, which is non-binding, passed with a large majority, backed by the Christian Democratic Union, the Christian Social Union, the Social Democratic Party, and the Free Democratic Party. Three parties abstained but no one voted against it.

The resolution called on the German government to “decree an activity ban against Hezbollah in order not to tolerate any activity in Germany by representatives of the organization, which opposes the principle of international understanding.”

In 2013, the European Union of which Germany is a member, blacklisted Hezbollah's “military wing” as a terrorist organization, while failing to blacklist the group’s political arm.

However, EU members the Netherlands and United Kingdom consider all of Hezbollah a terrorist entity, as do the United States, Canada, Israel and even the Arab League.

The British government formally announced in February that it intends to ban the political wing of the Hezbollah terror organization, after previously having banned its military wing.

Germany’s Minister of State Niels Annen said in August that his country will not follow Britain’s lead, arguing that the Shiite Muslim organization remained a relevant factor in Lebanese society.