CAA seeks dignity of a clear answer after utterly shameless Home Office response to Hizballah proscription petition

Campaign Against Antisemitism is appalled by the utterly shameless response of the Home Office to our Parliamentary Petition calling for the full proscription of Hizballah.

The petition, which has been signed by well over 14,000 people, from all but one of the UK’s 650 Parliamentary constituencies, calls for the full proscription of Hizballah as a terrorist organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000. Currently, the British Government lists only the “military wing” of Hizballah as a terrorist organisation, despite even Hizballah openly mocking the distinction.

As our Parliamentary Petition passed the 10,000 signatures needed to force the Government to respond, we also made written representations to the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid.

Without wishing to go into detail, we came to the conclusion that Hizballah would be proscribed.

However the response to our petition gave the distinct impression that the Government’s position has not changed. It claimed that the annual pro-Hizballah parade through London was “peaceful protest” and “a vital part of a democratic society…however uncomfortable [the views on display] may be to the majority of us, provided that they do so lawfully.”

In a separate letter from the Home Office that we have seen, the Rt Hon. Nick Hurd MP, Minister of State for Policing, noted that Hizballah provides “social and political functions”, but that does not negate the fact that the entirety of Hizballah seeks the annihilation of Jews and actively promotes its own campaign of terrorism that, according to Hizballah’s own statements, are conducted by one united Hizballah which does not have distinguishable political and military wings.

This is not a matter of Lebanese politics but of the supporters of a foreign terrorist organisation which seeks to murder British Jews being allowed to parade through our capital. In order to placate the genocidal antisemitic terrorists of Hizballah, this Government is betraying British Jews. If that is not the case, and the Home Office is considering banning Hizballah in its entirety, then it should say so.

We deserve the dignity of a clear answer from the Home Office. If we do not receive one in the coming days, it is our intention to campaign to highlight the Home Office’s dangerous and hypocritical stance.