Police searched the homes of Hamas members and followers in Germany on Thursday following an official ban on any activity or support for the terrorist group.
The German government imposed the ban on 2 November and dissolved the Samidoun group, which was behind Berlin’s celebration of the Hamas offensive into southern Israel on 7 October, when terrorists infiltrated Israel and carried out deadly attacks that killed some 1,200 people and took some 240 hostages.
The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network organised an action on 7 October when a group of people handed out cakes in a Berlin street to commemorate the Hamas attack. On the same day, the group published a “Calendar of Resistance in Defence of Palestine” on its website, with links to celebrations around the world and a call to “all Palestinian, Arab and international supporters of Palestine to intensify their organisational activities and struggles to support the heroic Palestinian resistance and oppose colonial Zionist violence and imperialist complicity”.
Germany’s domestic intelligence service reports that there are about 450 Hamas members in the country. Their activities range from expressing sympathies and propaganda to financing and fundraising to strengthen the terrorist group abroad. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said:
“We are continuing our consistent action against radical Islamists. By banning Hamas and Samidoun in Germany, we have sent a clear signal that we will not tolerate any glorification or support of Hamas’ barbaric terror against Israel.”
Police raids in Berlin were aimed at enforcing the bans and further investigating the groups’ activities. A total of 15 sites in Berlin and the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia were searched.
In Berlin alone, more than 300 police officers searched 11 locations to seize evidence and property. Seven of the searches were Hamas-related and four were Samidoun-related. The searches were mainly carried out in the homes of supporters and in the premises of the Palestinian association.
In the wake of the dramatic escalation of the conflict in Gaza, in which the Israeli army has vowed to destroy the Gaza Strip and end its 15-year reign, Germany is cracking down hard on groups espousing anti-Semitism.
On November 16, German police raided 54 locations across the country as part of an investigation into a Hamburg-based organisation suspected of spreading the ideology of the Iranian leadership and possibly supporting Hezbollah activities in Germany. On Tuesday, police searched the homes of 17 people in the southern German state of Bavaria accused of spreading anti-Semitic remarks and threats against Jews on the Internet.
The US State Department listed Hamas as a terrorist group in 1997. The European Union and other Western countries also consider it a terrorist organisation.
