Israeli embassy says antisemitic German teacher incites hate
BDS Berlin activists urged customers in front of the Berlin department store, Galeria Kaufhof, to boycott Israeli products.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALUpdated: OCTOBER 23, 2016 01:42BDS activists in Berlin.(photo credit: MANFRED DEUTSCHER)
Israel’s embassy in the German capital on Wednesday slammed a public school teacher, Christoph Glanz, for incitement of hatred against Jews, after he promoted of a photograph stoking violence against Israelis.“A teacher’s mission is to educate pupils and not to incite or to openly sympathize with violence. In his so-called manifest, he has committed himself to the BDS movement, which does not recognize the right of existence of the State of Israel. Proof of that can be easily found on official websites of BDS,” the embassy wrote to The Jerusalem Post.“This antisemitism has no place in the 21st century, especially not in Germany, where ‘incitement of the people’ (Volksverhetzung) is against the law,” the embassy added.Glanz, a teacher in the northern city of Oldenburg, posted a picture on his Facebook page of himself standing next to a stone mural, which depicts a Palestinian wearing a keffiyeh and aiming a slingshot.Glanz, who uses the false identity Christopher Ben Kushka on his Facebook page, wrote above the photograph: “Feeling definitely not neutral.”The words on Glanz’s T-shirt in the photograph read, “Make Trouble.”Glanz’s Facebook post was liked 34 times and shared once. It is unclear if his students read and endorsed the violent post. Glanz, a hardcore BDS activist, said it would not be absurd to eradicate Israel and relocate Jewish Israelis to the German state of Baden-Württemberg.The German concept Volksverhetzung is codified in German criminal law and is usually translated as incitement to hatred. The term applies to Holocaust denial, as well as to racism, antisemitism and xenophobia.The alleged endorsement of Palestinian violence against Jewish Israelis by Glanz has triggered calls for his immediate removal from the classroom.In August, after activists urged customers in front of the Berlin department store Galeria Kaufhof to boycott Israeli products, Glanz wrote on his Facebook page, “BDS Berlin rocks Galeria Kaufhof mall again – kudos!”
Post telephone queries to his school, Integrierte Gesamtschule Flötenteich, and home were not returned. Glanz’s organization, BDS Oldenburg, published on October 13 a statement on the BDS-Kampagne website saying: “The accusations against Christoph Glanz are entirely untrue. Legal measures concerning this matter will be examined.”The BDS-Kampagne group’s representative, Doris Ghannam, has ties to the terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.In December 2014, Ghannam delivered a talk on behalf of BDS-Berlin to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the PFLP; the Post has located a YouTube video of Ghannam’s speech.It is unclear if Glanz has ties to the terrorist organization, but school authorities in the state of Lower Saxony, where Glanz teaches, opened an investigation into his alleged misconduct.Tanja Meister, a spokeswoman for the state’s Education Ministry, told the Post on Tuesday that authorities need time to conclude the investigation, and that information about his potential ties to the PFLP “was sent to the person handling the examination” of Glanz’s conduct.The PFLP has used suicide bombers to murder scores of Israelis and hijacked American and Israeli planes, and is classified by the European Union, Canada and the US as a terrorist entity.In February, the DAB bank in Munich terminated the bank account of BDS-Kampagne. The Post learned that the boycott group’s link to Palestinian terrorism and discrimination against Jews played a role in the bank account closure.