We welcome the fact that the anti-Israeli boycott campaign BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), which calls for a total boycott of the State of Israel as well as of its academia, culture and trade, was today clearly condemned as antisemitic by the German Bundestag.
Although the campaign attempts to give itself this appearance, it is NOT a harmless civil-society movement. Rather, it agitates for the delegitimisation and abolition of the only Jewish state in the world. It has contributed nothing to pacifying the parties to the conflict.
It was therefore necessary for the German Bundestag to take a stand across party lines against the activities of the BDS campaign and to position itself clearly against its actions in public space and against the funding of its actors. With this motion, Germany assumes the pioneering role in Europe in the fight against this particularly perfidious form of antisemitism.
Elio Adler, chairman of the WerteInitiative – Jewish-German positions, on this: „Freedom of expression is a precious good. Protecting it also means defending it against abuse. BDS operates under a false flag, under the cloak of freedom of expression, in the direction of the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel. Now the Federal Government is called upon to implement this ground-breaking declaration of intent by the Bundestag in its work.“
A small and loud minority of Israeli/Jewish BDS apologists has been campaigning against the motion in recent days. Why is there no such letter from Israeli mainstream society? Because they are directly affected by BDS’s annihilationist ideas and it would not occur to them that German parliamentarians need input in this regard.
The cross-party teamwork was commensurate with the importance of the subject: the impetus for the present resolution came from the FDP. The CDU/CSU and SPD have consistently continued their policy, as agreed in the coalition agreement and laid down in the German Bundestag’s resolution against antisemitism of January 2018. The Grünen also joined the decision, thus jointly sending a strong signal.
