Frankfurt has become the first German city to ban the “anti-Semitic” Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign by passing a historic bill on Friday prohibiting municipal funding and rooms for BDS activities targeting Israel, Benjamin Weinthal reported in The Jerusalem Post.
Uwe Becker, the deputy mayor of Frankfurt and initiator behind the anti-BDS campaign, told the paper, “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.”
The deputy mayor had announced earlier this month that Frankfurt was seeking to ban BDS activities because of the movement’s “anti-Semitic” nature, adding 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.”
He also said that the central motivation behind the BDS campaign was “the delegitimization of the State of Israel, for which reason they proclaim boycott and spread defamation.” Their activities, he said, “are not a contribution to a democratic discussion, but they try to intimidate companies, artists, politicians etc.”
“BDS strongly attacks the fundamental basis of the legitimation of the Jewish State and takes the detour via anti-Zionism to spread anti-Semitism,” Becker stated. He added, “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 antisemitic BDS movement. We also instructed our city-owned companies and called upon private landlords to act in the same way.”
The city government supported the bill on Friday, and the next step is for Frankfurt’s parliament to vote on the new legislation in a few weeks. But according to Becker, the bill “has already gained the necessary support” and is expected to pass. It makes Frankfurt the first German city to codify anti-BDS legislation, with Bavaria’s capital Munich likely to follow suit, which is set to pass a similar anti-BDS measure after the summer break.
Becker concluded 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,” adding 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.”
[Photo: Polybert49 / Flickr ]