Several hundred German police officers carried out searches across large parts of the country on Thursday against an Islamist group suspected of supporting the Lebanese pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah, the Interior Ministry said.
“At a time when many Jews feel particularly threatened, we will not tolerate Islamist propaganda or anti-Semitic and anti-Israel campaigns,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement.
The police operation is directed against the “Islamic Center Hamburg” (IZH) and five other suspected organizations. They are all suspected of supporting the Shiite Islamist movement Hezbollah.
Germany considers Hezbollah a “terrorist organization” and banned its activities in the country in April 2020.
The searches were carried out at 54 properties in seven regions in Germany.
The IZH’s activities are aimed at spreading the “revolutionary concept” of the Iranian mullahs, which is “suspected of being in contradiction to the constitutional order in Germany,” the statement continued.
Specifically, the IZH association controls the Imam Ali Mosque in Hamburg. And the domestic secret service suspects that the IZH exerts “strong influence” on other mosques and clubs from there, “up to and including taking over the entire building,” the Interior Ministry confirmed.
In this movement, “we clearly observe anti-Semitic and hostile tendencies towards Israel, which are also propagated in various media channels,” he added.
The Hamburg authorities stated that the searches were intended to obtain information with a view to banning the IZH association, which has been in the authorities’ sights for several years. Their vice president was recently expelled from Germany.
“The sooner the IZH disappears completely from Hamburg, the better, and with today’s action we are one step closer to this goal,” said Hamburg’s Interior Minister Andy Grote in a press release.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to protect Jews in Germany as he commemorated the 85th anniversary of the Nazi pogrom a week ago, amid a resurgence in anti-Semitic acts since the start of the deadly war sparked by bloody attacks in October was carried out on Israeli soil by the Palestinian Hamas.
In addition, Germany and many other countries fear a flare-up of this conflict in the Middle East, particularly in Lebanon, caused by Hezbollah.
Since the beginning of the war, there have been daily exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel in the border area between the two countries.