By Dr. Eitan Azani -
[On July 22, 2013, the European Union voted to designate the military wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. A few days before, on July 09, Dr. Eitan Azani, Executive Deputy Director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), traveled to Brussels at the invitation of the European Parliament in order to testify in front of the Committee on Foreign Affairs at a Hearing on the blacklisting of Hezbollah. “Is Hezbollah a terrorist organization? It is natural that we should be discussing this question, for there is a great deal of evidence that Hezbollah is involved in terrorist activities internationally – including on European soil – and that it has been involved in terrorism and in killing civilians in Lebanon and regionally, in Iraq, Egypt, Bahrain – and especially in Syria. The answer to this question is: YES. If we examine Hezbollah’s organizational behavior throughout its history, in light of parameters that are included in most definitions of terrorism – that is, the actual use, or the threat of using, violence against civilians to achieve political goals – then we clearly see that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.”]