Germany's Bundestag
Germany's BundestagiStock

Germany's Bundestag lower house of parliament on Friday passed a law outlawing symbols of groups designated as terrorist organizations by the EU, including Hamas, AFP reports.

The new law, which must still be approved by the Bundesrat upper house, also outlaws symbols of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.

Previously, only symbols of organizations banned by Germany had been prohibited.

The move, which was reported in Germany earlier this week, comes after several violent and anti-Semitic pro-Palestinian rallies in the country during the escalation of the Middle East conflict in May.

In one of those incidents, a Jewish man was punched in the face and abused with anti-Semitic language while walking home in Berlin.

At one protest in Berlin, 59 people were arrested and dozens of police officers injured as protesters threw stones, bottles and fireworks.

Thorsten Frei, a lawmaker for Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU, told Die Welt newspaper last week that the government wanted to ban the Hamas flag in response to the demonstrations.

"We do not want the flags of terrorist organizations to be waved on German soil," he said, adding that a ban would send "a clear signal to our Jewish citizens".

The German government has in the past taken similar actions against the Hezbollah terrorist organization.

Germany last year issued a federal order outlawing Hezbollah in the country, and also took enforcement measures under the provisions of the order.

The order prohibits any contact with members of the organization and does not differentiate between its various arms - military, political or social. According to the order, any use of the organization's symbols and the organization's assets in Germany, if any, would be banned.

Subsequent reports indicated that Germany received intelligence information from Israel that helped formulate the declaration that Hezbollah will be outlawed.

In May, German authorities outlawed three organizations accused of fundraising for Hezbollah.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)