From the DW:
“German parliament condemns
'anti-Semitic' BDS movement”
The German Bundestag has passed a
resolution describing the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign against
Israel as anti-Semitic. Parliamentarians said some BDS slogans recalled Nazi
propaganda. A cross-party alliance in the German parliament on Friday passed a
resolution condemning the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and
cutting off funding to any organizations that "actively support" the
BDS movement. BDS seeks to financially pressure Israel into ending the
occupation of the Palestinian Territories and allow full equality for its
Arab-Palestinian citizens. Its third key demand, to grant the right of
Palestinian refugees from 1948 to return to Israel, is controversial, since
some argue that it threatens the state's right to exist. The movement, founded
in 2005, is supported by over 170 pro-Palestinian organizations. "The
pattern of argument and methods of the BDS movement are anti-Semitic," the
Bundestag resolution stated, before adding that BDS' calls to boycott Israeli
artists, and the "Don't Buy" stickers applied to Israeli goods
"recall the most terrible phase of German history." The resolution also
pledged not to financially support organizations that question Israel's right
to exist, projects that call for the boycott of Israel, or organizations that
actively support BDS.
Condemning BDS
The resolution was brought by all
the centrist parties in the German Bundestag, including Angela Merkel's
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the Christian
Social Union, the Social Democrats (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP), and
the Greens. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) brought its own
alternative resolution, calling for an outright ban on BDS. The socialist Left
party brought a milder resolution, calling for the condemnation of any
anti-Semitic BDS statements. Speaking in Friday's debate on the issue, CDU
Bundestag member Axel Müller reminded the chamber that upholding Israel's right
to exist remained a basic principle of the German state. He also claimed that
BDS campaign's social media accounts showed that it was occasionally influenced
by the "propaganda of the [Nazi] dictatorship." "We hopefully
remember the many hate-filled images from the Third Reich, where one could see
signs with the writing, 'Germans don't buy from Jews': a first step on the way
to genocide," he added.
Anti-Semitic or not?
The question of whether BDS
should be considered anti-Semitic remains controversial for some. BDS' German
branch published a statement this week in anticipation of Friday's resolution.
Signed by dozens of Jewish and Israeli academics, who identified both as
supporters and opponents of BDS, the statement warned the German political
parties, especially those representing the "democratic center," not
to support a resolution that "equated BDS with anti-Semitism." The statement also warned against cutting off
German funding for NGOs that support BDS, since this, they claimed, represented
a threat to freedom of speech. During Friday's debate, the Green party's Omid
Nouripour was among several Bundestag members to bring up the significance of
this week's Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, and the BDS call to boycott of
the event. "[The ESC] is one of the most successful formats of
international understanding in cultural exchange in Europe of the last few
decades," Nouripour said. "The fact that BDS is trying to organize a
boycott against this form of international understanding speaks volumes about
the character of this movement." Nouripour particularly condemned a logo
for the ESC that had been rejigged by the BDS campaign to included barbed wire
and an SS symbol. "That is simply intolerable," he said. "That
is the kind of comparison of Israeli policy with the crimes under the Nazis
against Jews, Roma, homosexuals and many others that has nothing to do with
criticism of the Israeli government." Jürgen Braun of the far-right AfD
made an intervention typically provocative for his party, saying that the AfD was
the only party in the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, that
could claim to be "a friend of Israel," a claim that drew scoffing
laughter from other lawmakers. He drew a rebuke from the Bundestag's Vice
President Claudia Roth, moderating the debate, for describing the other
political parties as the Altparteien ("old parties"), a phrase
sometimes associated with Nazi rhetoric.
German government takes a stand
In May 2018, the German
government appointed diplomat Felix Klein as its commissioner for
anti-Semitism, and he has made clear his view of BDS. "BDS must be
classified as anti-Semitic in both its aims and its methods, as Israeli
citizens are collectively held hostage by the boycott," he told DW at the
time. "And its methods have clearly borrowed from deplorable Nazi
rhetoric: 'Don't buy from Jews.'" Klein welcomed Friday's Bundestag
resolution. "We must oppose every form of anti-Semitism, even if it seems
to be harmless," he told the German dpa news agency. "The
implementation of the aims of the BDS movement would call Israel's right to
exist into question." That was echoed by the German government during
Friday's regular press conference. "We have already made clear several
times, both for the government, but also for the European Union, that we are
against every form of boycott against Israel," Foreign Ministry spokesman
Rainer Breul said. Though Breul later went on to take a more nuanced line:
"At the same time, it is clear that a whole variety of organizations are
collected under the label 'BDS,' and that there are certainly differences in
one form or another, how their engagement looks. One must assess in individual cases
whether they should be considered anti-Semitic or not." The Israeli
Foreign Ministry also welcomed the Bundestag's resolution on Friday, saying in
a statement that, "the German parliament has recognized the anti-Semitic
nature of BDS and its unlawful boycott activities."
^ BDS sounds like something you
go to a GI specialist about. I think it’s great that Germany is taking a stand
against BDS and it’s Anti-Semitic stance. ^
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