Europe Still Weighs Whether To Designate Hizbollah As A Terrorist Organization

By Victor Comras

The United States, the United Kingdom and Israel, are among the very few countries that have designated Hizbollah as a terrorist organization (and even the UK has limited its designation to Hizbollah's military wing or “External Security Organization, ” Unlike, Hamas, which was added to the EU's list of designated terrorist organizations in September 2003, there are no special EU restrictions on Hizbollah's financial or other activities in Europe. So, while the US is striving to clamp down on funding for Hizbollah, such activities are not illegal per se, and can be openly pursued in most European countries.

Europe's reluctance to designate Hezbollah, results in part from France's resistance to cutting off its own ties with Hezbollah which also is one of Lebanon's principal political groupings. The French have gone along, however, with designating Hizbollah's Security Chief, Imad Mughniyat as a terrorist. But Hizbollah's Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah and the Hizbollah organization itself are not on the EU list. French courts seem to have a somewhat different vision of Hizbollah. In December 2004 France's highest administive court, the Conseil d'État, led the way in Europe to shutting down broadcasts from Europe of Hizbollah's Al Manar Television Channel. The Court ordered Eutelsat to stop broadcasting Al Manar programming which it held violated France's laws against incitement to hatred and public endangerment. In March 2005, EU broadcasting regulators agreed also to ban all al Manar satellite broadcasts from Europe.

According to Israeli sources both France and Germany remain major recruiting and fund raising centers for Hizbollah in Europe. Numerous European charities have reportedly been engaged in raising and forwarded money for Hizbollah. These have included such charitieds as the Lebanese Islamic Association, the al-Shahid Social Relief Institution, the Help Foundation, The Lebanese Welfare Committee, and the Association of the Righteous. These and similar charities operate openly in several European countries. Germany did eventually act to close down al-Shahid Social Relief Institution after it had been linked also to funding Hamas.

It's not that the French deny that Hezbollah's engages in terrorism. Rather, in the word's of one anonymous EU official “Can a political party elected by the Lebanese people be put on a terrorist list ...Now with Lebanon in a fragile state, is this the proper moment to take such a step?” But the EU Parliament has expressed a different view. On March 10th 2005 the EU parliament voted 473 to 8 to approve a non binding consultative resolution calling on the EU Commission to “take all needed measures to put an end to the terrorist activities of this group.”

In weighing now whether to move ahead on designating Hizbollah as a terrorist organization the EU should take heed of its own recently adopted European Convention Convention on the Prevention of Terrorism. The Preamble of that convention recognizes that >" terrorist offences and the offences set forth in this Convention, by whoever perpetrated, are under no circumstances justifiable by considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other similar nature, and recalling the obligation of all Parties to prevent such offences and, if not prevented, to prosecute and ensure that they are punishable by penalties which take into account their grave nature."

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