German MP resigns from Palestinian NGO over support for BDS - EXCLUSIVE
Left-wing MPs refuse to resign from BDS-supporting organization
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALOlaf in der Beek MdB in front of Reichstag(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)The Jerusalem Post can confirm that German politician Olaf in der Beek resigned from the German-Palestinian Society on Tuesday because the organization’s advisory board did not reject the antisemitic boycott campaign against the Jewish state.In der Beek’s office told the Post on Wednesday that the Free Democratic Party (FDP) MP announced to the FDP faction in the parliament that he resigned from the German-Palestinian Society because the advisory board refuses to reject BDS.The Post learned from in der Beek’s office that members of the advisory board of the German-Palestinian Society showed no interest in distancing themselves from BDS.In February, in der Beek introduced an anti-BDS resolution to the German-Palestinian advisory board that was identical to the anti-BDS measure passed by the Bundestag in May 2019. The resolution declared the BDS campaign an antisemitic movement.In der Beek’s FDP has taken the lead within the German parliament in combating contemporary antisemitism targeting Israel.There are currently three German MPs on the board of the German-Palestinian Society, from the Social Democratic party, the Green party and the Left party.The members include Social Democratic MP Aydan Özogus and Green Party MP Omid Nouripour, the latter of whom co-sponsored a parliamentary initiative in 2013 to single out Jewish products from the West Bank with a labeling system. The Post has sent press queries to the Green Party and Social Democrats regarding their members’ roles in the society. Özogus and Nouripour have refused to comment.Christine Buchholz, a Left Party Bundestag deputy, is also on the advisory board. Buchholz has defended Hezbollah and Hamas terrorism against Israel as a justified form of “resistance.”In February, German Jews and NGOs urged all Bundestag MPs on the board of the German-Palestinian Society (GPS) to resign. Green Party MP Omid Nouripour “should of course resign,” the organization Munich Citizens against Antisemitism told the Post.
The Post sent press queries to Kirsten Kappert, a Green Party MP who is a vice president of the pro-Israel German-Israel Friendship Society. Kapper refused to comment on Nouripour's pro-BDS activity. The German Left Party opposed last year’s anti-BDS Bundestag resolution. In February, prominent German-Jewish attorney Nathan Gelbart, who has won legal cases against antisemites, told the Post: “Anyone who knows Nouripour will immediately recognize his wrong appointment in the horror cabinet of the advisory board of GPS. The question is whether and when he recognizes it. BDS stands for hatred of Jews and democratic values.” Dr. Elvira Grözinger, deputy director of the German branch of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, told the Post in February that Nouripour’s leaning toward Iran’s radical clerical regime shows that “this society [DPG] is influenced by Iran, which clearly shows its direction as opposed to the Jewish state.“It is a scandal that German MPs, despite the German federal pledge to Israel’s security and history, are targeting the Jewish state, pursue its annihilation and promote its boycotts,” she said. “Antisemites of this kind must not have a place in a democratic parliament.”
