Exclusive: German Jewish leader condemns violent BDS attack on pro-Israel activist

The chairwoman of Munich’s Jewish community, Charlotte Knobloch, sent a letter of support to young German Zionist Gerald Hetzel, who campaigned against BDS, after he was attacked by activists and left bloodied in a street in the Bavarian capital.

The Jerusalem Post obtained a copy of Knobloch’s September letter and can first reveal that the Holocaust survivor wrote she was “horrified to learn of the attack on you after a lecture event in Munich. I would like to wish you all the best and a speedy recovery.”

Knobloch, who heads the largest regional Jewish community in Germany, covering Munich and Upper Bavaria with its roughly 9,500 members, added that “the frightening incident shows once again: Democratic society thrives on debate, discussion, and also on heated arguments between different positions, but never on violence. I wish you all the best and very much hope that your next stay in Munich is more enjoyable.”

Hetzel, who is the chairman of the German-Israel friendship society in Passau, Bavaria, told the Post he attended a public lecture on September 1 in the Barrio Olga Benario center, known for its “left-wing extremism,” according to Hetzel. He documented the agitation against Israel at the lecture.

“After the lecture, I was thrown out by force. Three to four people followed me and I was beaten up on the street, 50 meters away. My bag was thrown across the street and my laptop was badly damaged. I went straight to the police and filed a report,” said Hetzel.

Oliver Platzer, a spokesman for the Bavarian State Interior Ministry, told the Post that “every crime is one too many. The police station is responsible for classifying a crime as a politically motivated crime. To our knowledge, the act has not currently been assessed as an antisemitic crime. However, due to the ongoing investigation, no conclusive statement can be made here.”

Critics want the Bavarian police and Interior Ministry to modernize their definition of antisemitism to include targeting of Israel.

Hetzel said the event was “not classified as antisemitic, because, from the police’s point of view, it is a political dispute and not specifically directed against Jews (but rather a dispute about the policies of Israel).”

 The alleged anti-Israel lecture was delivered by a podcast group called “Parallel World Palestine.” Two anti-Israel activists, Lena Obermaier and Michael Sappir, delivered the talk, said Hetzel.

Hetzel that Israel was “clearly delegitimized in the lecture; in my opinion, Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state was questioned. Militant Palestinians were described uncritically and in some cases positively, and the BDS movement was praised and promoted in several places. I didn’t say anything during the lecture or in the question and answer session.”

Speaker Lena Obermaier, listed as a PhD candidate for Middle Eastern politics at the University of Exeter in the UK, reportedly signed a letter calling for a boycott. The letter, titled “Palestine and Praxis: Open Letter and Call to Action,” advocates the Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment campaign against Israel. According to Hetzel’s notes of Obermaier’s lecture, she said “Desires for genocide are openly expressed,” and said there is an “ impending ethnic cleansing in Palestine.”

In 2019, Germany’s Bundestag classified the BDS movement as antisemitic.

Good people doing nothing

Numerous press queries sent to Obermaier, including to the University of Exeter, were unanswered.

The organizer of the event was listed as the Munich-based group “In Action against War and Militarization.” The Bavarian intelligence agency designated the group in its 2023 report to be part of the left-wing extremist scene in Bavaria.

A second attack took place a week later in Munich. Left-wing extremists from the group Barrio attacked Hetzel and Corey Sokolowski, a Canadian Jew who studies at IDC Herzliya. Barrio extremists damaged Hetzel’s camera and Sokolowski suffered light injuries. Hetzel filed a police complaint for the second attack on September 10.

Yonatan Shay, head of the Israel-Advocacy and Information division at Im Tirtzu, told the Post that “Hetzel is a fervent Zionist and a true friend of Israel. Unfortunately, since he took part in a few major projects of the movement which are crucial for the security and prosperity of the Jewish state and completed his internship, he is being constantly bullied and hassled by various groups in  German society.”

He added that “a few of them also define themselves hypocritically ‘Friends of Israel’, while they slander and delegitimize mainstream Zionist organizations and parties in Israel. Gerald is the paragon for a devoted advocate of Israel and for us he is definitely a modern Fritz Bauer, who also advocated for Israel and the Jewish people under impossible conditions in a hostile atmosphere. We condemn every attempt to hurt him due to his Zionist views and opinions.”

Fritz Bauer (1903-1968) was a German Jewish jurist who played a crucial role in prosecuting Germans responsible for the Holocaust during the second Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt. Hetzel is a law student.

The Post sent press queries to the Ludwig Spaenle, the German official tasked with fighting antisemitism in Bavaria, who declined to comment. After German and Israeli media reported in early 2023 that the Bavarian-based giant engineering corporation Siemens signed a pro-BDS contract with a Turkish company, Spaenle declined to criticize the BDS deal.