Berlin (dpa) – Following the attack on Israel by the Islamist Hamas group which killed several hundred people, Olaf Scholz has announced a ban on the organisation’s activities in Germany. The Palestinian Samidoun network is also to be prohibited, Scholz said in a Government statement to the Bundestag. He also reaffirmed Germany’s full solidarity with Israel. “Right now there is only one place for Germany: side-by-side with Israel,” said the Federal Chancellor.
On the subject of the activity ban on Hamas and the prohibition Samidoun network, Scholz stressed that there could be no tolerance for antisemites, and that the security forces would enforce this with to the fullest extent of the law. “Anyone who glorifies Hamas or uses its symbols is committing an offence in Germany,” he said. “Anyone who condones murder and manslaughter or calls for crimes is committing an offence. Anyone who burns the Israeli flag is committing an offence. Anyone who supports a terrorist organisation like Hamas is committing an offence.”
Hamas does not have an official subsidiary in Germany. Groups close to the movement were outlawed a few years ago. The ban on activities announced by Scholz is available as an additional measure, and is to be imposed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The ban on activities includes a prohibition on assemblies of all kinds by the organisation, as a spokesperson from the Federal Ministry of the Interior explained. Hamas is listed as a terrorist organisation by the EU and is classified as a foreign terrorist body here in Germany, and it is an offence to use its symbols here.
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