On Thursday morning, the police in Duisburg searched several properties. The background is the ban on the Palestine Solidarity Duisburg group by the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of the Interior.
The police and the North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Ministry have taken action against the Palestine Solidarity Duisburg group because of their alleged support for the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas. Emergency services searched four objects in Duisburg that are connected to the group on Thursday morning, the ministry announced. The group was banned by the Interior Ministry in Düsseldorf on Thursday.
“This ban comes at the right time and sends the right signal. In many cases, solidarity with Palestine hides nothing other than hatred of Jews – as is the case with the organization that is banned today,” said NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU), according to the statement. The state has shown a clear stance against extremism.
According to the ministry, Palestine Solidarity Duisburg is an association that has set itself the task of carrying out Palestine solidarity work primarily in Duisburg, but also nationwide. The group seeks the liberation of Palestine within the 1947 borders before the founding of the State of Israel. Palestine Solidarity Duisburg expressly expresses solidarity with the Palestinian resistance in all forms, which also includes the armed struggle of the terrorist organization Hamas against Israel.
The ideological orientation of the group is characterized by an anti-Israel and anti-Semitic worldview. The association publicly spreads anti-Semitic ideas in meetings and via its social media channels. Palestine Solidarity Duisburg continually incites against the state of Israel and holds it solely responsible for the Middle East conflict. In doing so, he brings hatred and violence into the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians and, not least, endangers the life and limb of fellow Israelis and Jews living in Germany.
The ministry also announced that the association’s websites were banned and would be shut down. It would also be forbidden to form replacement organizations for the association and use its symbols. The association’s assets would be confiscated and forfeited for the benefit of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
