NEW ZEALAND DESIGNATES HEZBOLLAH AS A TERRORIST ORGANISATION

Thu 21 November 2024:

New Zealand has officially designated the Lebanese group, Hezbollah, as a terrorist organisation.

The announcement comes as Israel continues its military attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, an extension of its ongoing war in Gaza. Similarly, the Yemeni Houthi movement, Ansar Allah, has also been classified as a terrorist entity by New Zealand, following its attacks on shipping in support of Gaza.

New Zealand is the 30th country to list the entire Hezbollah organisation as a terrorist entity.

“It’s very simple. For any organisation to be deemed a terrorist organisation under New Zealand legislation, we have to have evidence, and we go through a number of tests under our legislation, that the organisation has knowingly undertaken terrorist activity,” New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, said about the designations, adding that this was determined to be the case for Hezbollah and the Houthis.

In response, the Palestine Solidarity Network, Aotearoa, criticised the move as “wrong at every level”, arguing it was unjust because both Hezbollah and the Houthis were responding to the genocide in Gaza.

The group accused the New Zealand government of turning a blind eye to Israeli war crimes in the region, while condemning Palestinian Resistance.

It was “especially galling when the New Zealand government, which has condemned every act of Palestinian Resistance, has refused to condemn Israel for any of its shocking war crimes across the Middle East,” it said.

Earlier this year, New Zealand also designated the political wing of Hamas, based in Gaza, as a terrorist organisation..

-MEMO

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