German political party proposes bill to ban state support of BDS
“We want to prevent state support for organizations that challenge Israel's right to exist."
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALBDS(photo credit: WIKIPEDIA)
The Free Democratic Party (FDP) in the Bundestag submitted a bill in the second week of April to outlaw government support for the anti-Israel BDS campaign.“We want to prevent state support for organizations that challenge Israel’s right to exist. We are currently approaching other political groups in the German Bundestag in order to facilitate a joint initiative,” wrote the FDP MP Frank Müller-Rosentritt on his website. Müller-Rosentritt is a co-sponsor of the bill along with his FDP colleague Dr. Bijan Djir-Sarai.Müller-Rosentritt wrote on his website: “Since its founding in 2005, the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) has been calling for the isolation and economic, cultural and political boycott of the state of Israel. The BDS movement is not only anti-Israel in its methods and aims, but for the most part clearly antisemitic.”In an interview with the Berlin-based newspaper Der Tagesspiegel on Wednesday, Müller-Rosentritt said the FDP wants to draft a joint cross-party text. “We want a real position of the German government against antisemitism with concrete measures - and not simply say that one condemns antisemitism,” said Müller-Rosentritt.Djir-Sarai became the first ever member of the German Bundestag to urge German banks to restrict access to organizations seeking to boycott the Jewish state.Djir-Sarai, the foreign policy spokesman of the FDP, wrote to The Jerusalem Post by email on Friday: “The Bank for Social Economy should close the accounts of the association Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East. Antisemitism must not be tolerated. Business relationships with such actors need to be reconsidered and their platforms limited.”