Home Secretary Sajid Javid has formally announced the Government’s banning of Hezbollah in its entirety during a late session in the House of Commons on Tuesday night. However, the Labour front bench refused to make any comment whatsoever.
Mr Javid’s announcement was welcomed from members of both sides of the House, including a scathing rebuke of the Labour leadership by Labour’s Wes Streeting, however when the Home Secretary asked the thinly represented opposition leadership whether it supported the ban, there was complete silence.
Shockingly, a statement released by the Labour leadership earlier Tuesday called on Sajid Javid to prove the validity of the ban and accused the Home Secretary of banning the group because of “leadership ambitions”.
@sajidjavid concludes tonight's debate by offering the opposition front benches the opportunity to offer their support to the motion proscribing Hezbollah in its entirity. It appears they refused! pic.twitter.com/TlHjWlh5qT
— SussexFriendsIsrael (@SussexFriends) February 26, 2019
The Home Secretary released a statement earlier this week that Hezbollah was to be added to the list of proscribed terrorist organisations in the United Kingdom, with the House of Commons giving approval Tuesday evening.
CUFI led calls for the outright banning of Hezbollah, with more than 20,000 people signing a CUFI UK petition calling for the ban with thousands more CUFI supporters writing to the Government.
Until now, Britain had only banned its “military” arm but not its “political” wing meaning there was a legal loophole currently allowing support for the organisation to grow. However, Hezbollah, by its own admission, does not differentiate between its political and military wings.
A Labour Party spokesperson said earlier on Tuesday:
“The Home Office has previously ruled that there was not sufficient evidence that the political wing of Hezbollah fell foul of proscription criteria, a position confirmed by ministers in the House of Commons last year.”
“Ministers have not yet provided any clear evidence to suggest this has changed.”
“It has also rightly been the view of the Foreign Office for many years that proscribing the political wing of Hezbollah, which is part of the democratically elected Lebanese government, would make it difficult to maintain normal diplomatic relations with Lebanon, or to work with the government on humanitarian issues, including those facing Syrian refugees, in parts of the country controlled by Hezbollah.”
“Decisions on the proscription of organisations as terror groups are supposed to be made on the advice of civil servants based on clear evidence that those organisations fall foul of the proscription criteria set out in legislation.”
“The Home Secretary must therefore now demonstrate that this decision was taken in an objective and impartial way, and driven by clear and new evidence, not by his leadership ambitions.”
“We support the government in its decision to proscribe the groups Jamaat Nusrat al Islam Wall Muslimin and Ansaroul Islam.”
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said in Monday’s statement:
“My priority as Home Secretary is to protect the British people. As part of this, we identify and ban any terrorist organisation which threatens our safety and security, whatever their motivations or ideology which is why I am taking action against several organisations today.”
“Hizballah is continuing in its attempts to destabilase the fragile situation in the Middle East – and we are no longer able to distinguish between their already banned military wing and the political party. Because of this, I have taken the decision to proscribe the group in its entirety.”
Over the past three years, CUFI UK has led the calls to ban Hezbollah in the UK. We have more recently launched Operation Mordecai which is CUFI UK’s strategic plan to highlight the threat from Iran to Israel and the West.
The on-going campaign involves a number of actions on wide-ranging issues relating to Iran, but its primary aim is to ensure Britain positions itself on the right side of history by defending Israel against the tyrannous Iranian regime.
Operation Mordecai takes inspiration from the Biblical account of Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, whom having heard of the plot to annihilate the Jews, sought the Lord, warned about what was planned and took action. Please see below for more details about this campaign and how you can get involved.
Christians United for Israel UK
