Wiesenthal Center antisemitism list may include BDS entity with German MPs
"German-Palestinian Society is an organization that promotes the destruction of the Jewish state and is candidate for SWC top 10 anti-Semitism/anti-Israel list."
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, also known as BDS.(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The prominent human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) announced on Sunday that it might include the German-Palestinian Society — a group that is supported by three German MPs – in its top-ten list of worst outbreaks of antisemitism and anti-Israel conduct of 2020.The associate dean of the Center, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, wrote to The Jerusalem Post, “Why is Germany allowing so-called Palestinian art that invokes a slogan calling for the end of the Jewish state to be shown? German-Palestinian Society is an organization that promotes the destruction of the Jewish state and is a candidate for SWC's top 10 anti-Semitism/anti-Israel list.”Cooper’s statement follows criticism against the MPs and the pro-Palestinian group from David Peyman, the deputy Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism for BDS, Eurasia and Special Projects in the US State Department, to the Post last week.The German-Palestinian Society urged the total destruction of the Jewish state in its art exhibit. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) entity declared in the exhibit: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”The three allegedly pro-BDS supporters, who are on the advisory board of the German-Palestinian Society, are Omid Nouripour (The Green Party), Aydan Özoguz (Social Democratic Party) and Christine Buchholz (The Left Party).All three MPs have declined to comment on whether they support the art exhibit calling for Israel’s destruction.Uwe Becker, the German commissioner to combat antisemitism in the state of Hesse, who has urged, for example, the MP Nouripour to resign from the BDS group, filed a criminal complaint against the group Free Palestine FFM last week for using the phrase “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.” Becker told the Post in connection to the MPs on the advisory board that “everybody who supports BDS or affiliated groups should know that he or she supports an antisemitic movement.”German Jewish leaders, including Charlotte Knobloch – the president of the Munich Jewish community and a Holocaust survivor – have urged the MPs to resign from the BDS group. Knobloch told the Post that “All true democrats ought to follow in der Beek’s example and leave the German-Palestinian Society advisory board.”The Post sent press queries on Sunday to the German-Palestinian Soceity's Executive Board, including its members Nazih Musharbash, Detlef Griesche, Ursula Mindermann, Ribhi Yousef, and Gisela Siebourg.
