In a strongly worded resolution passed by the Green Party in the southern German state of Bavaria, the state unit of the party has rejected the anti-Israel boycott campaign, or the BDS Movement as antisemitic.
The resolution titled “No to Antisemitism, no to BDS” (embedded and translated below) declared the Bavarian Green Party’s intention to actively challenge the BDS activism in the state.
Eva Lettenbauer, a spokeswoman for the Green Youth organization, told the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post that the BDS campaign “”does not recognize Israel’s right to exist” and aggressively attempts to damage Israel via boycotts.”
The resolution, passed last month, also compared the calls to boycott Israel to the Nazi “Don’t Buy From Jews” slogan. Here is a translated version of the resolution:
Recently, there have been campaign events of the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” [BDS-Movement] in Germany and Bavaria. The BDS Campaign is, it its totality, antisemitic, hostile to Israel, reactionary and anti-enlightenment. The positions represented and the demands made by [the BDS-Movement] delegitimize and demonize Israel, and put the blame entirely on the Jews for all the ills of the region — despite the fact that Israel is the only democracy with the rule of the law [in the region]. At the same time, double standards are applied when, for example, crimes of Hamas a ignored or downplayed. The boycott call recycles the famous “Don’t Buy From Jews” slogan of the National Socialist [era].Therefore the Bavaria [unit of] the Alliance 90/The Greens, in keeping with its commitment to an open society and against every [form of] Antisemitism, will position itself against all efforts undertaken by the BDS Campaign, inform and educate [people], and prevent the enforcement of call for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions to the best of its abilities. [Translation by the author]
The story was first broken by Benjamin Weinthal, Jerusalem Post’s Europe correspondent and fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
(A copy of the original resolution passed by the Bavaria unit of the Alliance 90/The Greens)
The German Green Party’s document correctly notes the rise of BDS activities in the country, a phenomena fueled by Germany’s radicalizing Muslim population and left-wing activists. Alarmed by the recent inroads made by the BDS agitators, the student bodies at the Frankfurt and Leipzig universities have also passed similar resolutions rejecting anti-Israel boycott campaigns on their campuses.
In achieving the objectives expressed in the the resolution, the Green Party’s Bavaria state unit faces a two-pronged challenge. The state unit will not only have to face the BDS-agitators out on the streets but also the anti-Israel activism within the Green Party at the national level. In 2013, parliamentarians of the Green Party’s in the German Bundestag tried to push the issue of labeling Israeli products.
[Cover image via YouTube]
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY
