Frankfurt bans "Anti-Semitic" boycott campaign

The town of Frankfurt has become the first German city to ban the "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel and clearly against the Jews. It has passed a historic bill prohibiting municipal funding for BDS attempts at targeting Israel and favoring the Palestinian Authority, as reported in the Jerusalem Post. 

"The BDS movement does not only strongly resemble the 'Don't buy from Jews' argumentation of former times of the National Socialists, but the movement is built on the same toxic ground and it is poisoning the social climate in the same dangerous way," said Uwe Becker, deputy mayor of Frankfurt.

Becker is the man behind the anti-BDS movement campaign and he announced in early August that the city was seeking to ban the BDS movement due to its "anti-Semitic" nature. 

He added the disclaimer that "not everybody who supports BDS is an anti-Semite him- or herself, but those who support BDS help to spread anti-Semitism, because BDS is an anti-Semitic movement."

Becker said the central motivation of BDS was "the delegitimization of the State of Israel, for which reason they proclaim boycott and spread defamation." Their activities "are not a contribution to a democratic discussion, but they try to intimidate companies, artists, politicians etcetera."

"BDS strongly attacks the fundamental basis of the legitimation of the Jewish State and takes the detour via anti-Zionism to spread anti-Semitism. That's why we decided to ban any municipal funding or the renting of rooms for any activities of groups or individuals, who support the anti-Semitic BDS movement. We also instructed our city-owned companies and called upon private landlords to act in the same way."

Frankfurt's government supported the bill on Friday and now the city parliament must vote on the new legislation in several weeks. Becker believes it has gained necessary support and will pass.

Munich is likely to follow suit and is set to pass a similar anti-BDS measure after the summer break. 

Becker said that "Frankfurt is a city with strong Jewish traditions, Jewish life is part of the identity of our city, part of the history of the development as an economical powerhouse, as a city of culture and education--and we are proud of that." He added that "we have a strong and vivid partnership with Israel, that has grown over the past 37 years with a strong friendship, that we have with our sister-city Tel Aviv."

The BDS movement is really a mask for anti-Semitism and needs to come off.




Tweet