Hezbollah Comes to the Belgian Parliament

The Belgian government is always open to novel political ideas: just look how well it respects the opinions of Vlaams Belang.

So it’s only natural that the Belgian Parliament building should be used to host the peace-loving members of Hezbollah. According to ESISC:

Belgian Political parties “invite” Hezbollah in the Belgian Parliament

At least two prominent members of Hezbollah will speak today in the heart of the European capital, thanks to all the Belgian political parties.

A Belgian MP, Fouad Lahssaini booked a conference room in the Belgium Parliament to host, today, a conference of the Union Internationale des parlementaires pour la Palestine. Due to speak at the conference, are Dr Hussein Al Haj Hassan (photo), Lebanese MP, member of the Hezbollah and Abdullah Kassir, CEO of Al Manar, the TV station of Hezbollah. Al Manar was banned in several European countries including France and Germany for incitation to murder, racism and hate propaganda.

It is interesting to note that the decision to give this room to UIPP was submitted to the “Conference of the Presidents” which gathers all the parties represented in the Belgian Parliament. It seems that no one had an objection or ask for any precision on who will speak. That means that anyone could book a room in the Belgian Parliament without further control or that the Belgian parties think it is normal to let Hezbollah speak in the house of democracy.

In the eighties, Hezbollah took several European hostages in Lebanon, sometimes for years. Since that, the organisation was pointed for terrorism activities in Argentina, France, Germany and other places.

More detail about this appalling event is available in Dutch (and French). Our Flemish correspondent VH has translated the following article from LVB:
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Hezbollah as guest in Parliament

The two Hezbollah captains you see on the pictures above were the guests this Monday of the Belgian Parliament.

Not in the plenary meeting or in a committee, but in a conference room used by the Parliament that has been made available to a congress of the IUPFP [International Union of Parliamentarians for Palestine], an international association of parliamentarians who are in agreement with the Palestinian cause. Since the beginning of this year, the IUPFP has been led by the well known Fleming Dyab Abou Jahjah, who is of Lebanese descent [Note: Theo van Gogh used to call him “The Pimp of the Prophet” — VH].

This gentleman once stated that he had been a member of Hezbollah, but later withdrew those words and then later stated that this was a white lie to acquire political asylum in Belgium (which was then refused to him), supposedly as an apostate ex-member on the run for the revenge of Hezbollah.

Whatever the case, the first major activity of the Belgian branch of the IUPFP (president of the Belgian branch is Luk Vervaet) is on the stocks, in the prestigious conference hall of the Parliament. Amongst the speakers at least two prominent members of Hezbollah, the pro-Syrian and Iran-funded terrorist movement in Lebanon, stand out.

Now I have to let the word “terrorist” be accompanied by the following explanation: first, Hezbollah is on the USA’s blacklist of terror organizations, but not so in Europe. The European politicians could not agree whether Hezbollah should be blacklisted or not. The Netherlands, Canada, the United States and Israel though, listed Hezbollah without any doubt as a terrorist organization. According to Great Britain and Australia though, only the military wing of Hezbollah is terrorist, the political and executive wings are not.

Political party, radical Shia Islamic group, militant movement, private militia, terrorist group: Hezbollah is a mix of all these identities. With an eye on the attainment of a peaceful solution to the Lebanese conflict, some EU politicians now find it time to roll out the red carpet for Hezbollah.

Two prominent figures from the political wing of Hezbollah thus will be in the Parliament this Monday:

1.		Abdullah Kassir, director of the Hezbollah television station Al-Manar, and also a former MP for Hezbollah. Geert Bourgeois, a Flemish Minister of Media, tried to ban the reception and transmission of Al Manar (not to be confused with the Brussels local radio station Al Manar) in Flanders. Something that I — as a supporter of the free flow of information — do not agree with, because how can I know how bad, hateful or inflammatory a station there is if I can not even watch it? But still it is interesting to note that the director of the channel Bourgeois wanted to ban, and already is banned in Germany and France, will tomorrow sit down in the plush of the Paleis der Natie [Palace of the Nation].
2.		Hussein Al-Haj Hassan, MP for Hezbollah. After the armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in August 2006, Hassan posed himself as a spokesman for the military wing by declaring that the regular Lebanese army was unable to defend Lebanon, and that Hezbollah was the only guarantee for Lebanese national unity.

Now it is of course always possible that the conference will be moved elsewhere in the last minute, or will be canceled.

The writing of this article was based on the information available today, through public channels.

The International Union of Parliamentarians for Palestine
www.iupfp.com
invites you to a special conference
on Monday, 15 December 2008
14 to 17 hours, at the Belgian Parliament
Rue de Louvain 21 — 1000 Bruxelles (Congress Hall — 3rd floor)
Registration required

Suffering and resistance of Palestinian prisoners
At the end of this year to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Nakba [1948, establishment of the State of Israel], the situation of Palestinian prisoners is worse than ever: 11,000 Palestinian prisoners (including a dozen ministers and dozens of deputies) are languishing in the prisons of the State of Israel, 1.5 million Palestinians barely survive in the open-air prison Gaza.

Speakers
Khreiseh Hassan, vice president of the Palestinian parliament (Palestinian Legislative Council)
Dr. Hussein Al Haj Hassan, a member of the Lebanese Parliament on the exchange of prisoners with the State of Israel.
Abdullah Kassir, secretary of the IUPFP.
Arafat Shoukri, President of the European campaign to end the siege of Gaza.
Greta Berlin, spokesman for the Free Gaza Movement.

To finish on a positive note: the speech of Mr. Hussein Al-Haj Hassan will be about “the exchange of prisoners with the State of Israel.” In the normal literature of the participating organizations, they usually refer to “the Zionist entity”, occasionally to “Israel” but the combination of that name with “State” seems to contradict their “principles”…