Reacting to the announcement of the Government’s move to proscribe antisemitic, terrorist organisation Hizballah in its entirety, Marie van der Zyl, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jonathan Goldstein, Chair of the Jewish Leadership Council and David Delew, Chief Executive of the Community Security Trust, said:

“We welcome the Home Secretary’s move to proscribe Hizballah in full. The Jewish community, including our organisations and leading community newspapers, have long led the call for this ban.

“Hizballah was responsible for the deaths of 85 people in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires and remains a threat to Jewish communities around the world, launching deadly attacks against civilians in Israel and Bulgaria and planning for attacks in other places such as Cyprus.

“The group’s genocidal intentions towards world Jewry were made clear in 1992 when they stated, “The war is on until Israel ceases to exist and the last Jew in the world has been eliminated”.

“The case against Hizballah has grown as the world has witnessed the terrorist organisation’s widespread and active complicity in the wanton slaughter of civilians in Syria in support of Bashar al-Assad and his allies.

“The previously held false distinction, between the ‘political’ and ‘military’ wings, was denied by even the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, who said that, “The story of military wing and political wing is the work of the British”.

“This has led to a situation where Hizballah supporters were free to parade the flags of this antisemitic terrorist organisation on the streets of London. following today’s announcement, we call on all of the relevant authorities to ensure that this will no longer be tolerated.

“The Government, and in particular the Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary, have our thanks for their leadership on this issue and we encourage other countries to follow suit. We would hope that all political parties would back this measure to secure our community and the rest of the UK from the murderous, antisemitic terrorists of Hizballah. It is customary for terrorism proscriptions to be supported on a cross-party basis and we call on MPs and peers to back the motions in both Houses of Parliament this week.”