AJC Calls on EU to Label Hezbollah a Terror Organization

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is urging the European Union (EU) to designate Hezbollah as a terror organization in an ad that will be featured in The New York Times on Sept. 24.

The ad, which can be seen on the AJC’s website, points out that the Arab League, Argentina, Canada, the Gulf Operation Council, Israel, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States have all designated Hezbollah as a terror organization. The ad states that the EU has only designated Hezbollah’s military wing as a terror organization, not its political wing.

“This is self-delusion at its worst and most dangerous, allowing Hezbollah to operate its ‘political’ wing in Europe by recruiting members and raising funds,” the ad states. “As Hezbollah leaders themselves declare repeatedly, it is one indivisible organization.”

The AJC campaign will also feature 30-second ads on television news channels, including CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.

In addition, the AJC has a report on its website arguing against the EU’s various claims against designating Hezbollah as a terror organization. The report notes that Hezbollah has a “terror infrastructure” throughout Europe, pointing out that Hezbollah attacked “a bus of Israeli tourists” in Bulgaria in 2012 and as well as detonated “two car bombs at the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish charity in London” in the 1990s. Hezbollah also engages in criminal activity in European countries, including drug trafficking, counterfeiting euros, hacking computer servers.

Additionally, Hezbollah frequently promulgates anti-Semitic rhetoric under the guise of anti-Zionism, the report states, arguing that “Hezbollah has learned to manipulate the guilt complex that permeates certain European countries whose Jewish communities were decimated during the Holocaust” through its narrative of “the oppression of the Palestinians that they say is perpetuated by Israeli policies, then use that fiction to justify delegitimizing a Jewish state.” 

Examples of Hezbollah’s anti-Semitism includes Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah denying the Holocaust in 2010 and the terror group’s yearly celebration of Al Quds Day, which the Iranian regime started in 1979 to call for the destruction of Israel.

“One need only see the Stars of David engulfed in flames and hear the death chants to understand this has less to do with Israel and more to do with a deep-seated demonization of the Jewish people,” the report states.