Terrified by Hamas red triangle, German House votes on banning symbol
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The Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party had filed an urgent motion to impose a ban on the triangle used in the al-Qassam Brigades' videos.
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A Palestinian man walks past a graffiti showing the inverted "red triangle" symbol that the al-Qassam Brigades uses to identify targets in their videos, in the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil, on November 30, 2023. (AFP)
Germany's House of Representatives voted in favor of banning the use of the red inverted triangle used by the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, in its videos, the ASB Zeitung news website reported on Thursday.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) had filed an urgent motion to impose a ban on the triangle used by Hamas as a symbol to mark their targets, which secured a majority in the German parliament's plenary session.
Burkard Dregger, spokesperson for the CDU faction's interior policy, stated that the goal is to have the Berlin Administrative Office prohibit the use of the symbol.
"Secondly, the federal government should extend the Hamas ban to include the prohibition of the Hamas triangle," Dregger added.
Martin Matz from the SPD said that Hamas uses the symbol to mark people as targets, claiming that the prohibition of the triangle's use is justified for good reasons. However, he failed to mention that the targets displayed in the Palestinian Resistance group's videos only include Israeli soldiers and military personnel and vehicles.
On the other hand, opposition parties, the Greens, Left, and AfD, did not support the application.
Vasili Franco from the Greens pointed out that total bans are not covered by the rights of assembly or freedom of opinion.
Similarly, Niklas Schrader from the Left indicated that the application is inappropriate and a case of ineffective symbolic politics.
He argued that the red triangle has a long history and is also used by other organizations facing criminalization, suggesting that "if one wants to put the triangle under penalty, one must clearly distinguish it."
Since the start of the Israeli war on the Palestinian people in the #Gaza Strip, Germany reiterated "Israel's" so-called "right to self-defense" and cracked down on pro-Palestinian voices that call for a ceasefire using anti-Semitism as a pretext.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) July 2, 2024
The Federal Government of… pic.twitter.com/x0veRmxaVN
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