MP for Hendon, Dr Matthew Offord, has congratulated Barnet Council for unanimously agreeing to pass the motion ‘Proscribe Hezbollah in its entirety’ at its meeting this week.
The motion called on the Home Secretary to ban Hezbollah as a terror organisation in its entirety, as currently only its ‘military wing’ is proscribed in the UK, despite the organisation itself making no distinction between this and its so-called ‘political wing’.
CFI Officer Dr Offord said that he has “repeatedly called for the whole of the Hezbollah organisation to be proscribed under the Terrorism Act as the current situation enables them to use a legal loop-hole to justify unacceptable actions and words”.
He emphasised: “Many people in our borough feel that the behaviour of those people who display such flags is not simply free speech but crosses the line of anti-Semitism when they use specific terms to criticise the state of Israel and Jewish people. As Barnet Council has demonstrated, such deliberately provocative, racist actions must not be tolerated”.
Conservative Councillor Brian Gordon said: “It is a matter of deep concern to our Borough, obviously among the Jewish community the largest of which in the UK is in Barnet, but numerous other residents too, who are well aware of the evils of terrorism”.
The 63-member Council is Conservative controlled with a majority of just one, and the motion was supported unanimously by all those present – Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem.
Last month, Hezbollah flags were openly displayed in central London at the annual Al-Quds Day Rally. CFI’s Parliamentary group and numerous Conservative MPs have condemned the display and called on the Government to proscribe Hezbollah as a full terrorist organisation.
