'Anti-Jewish' Museum gives award to anti-Israel German FM
German Jews protest award to top diplomat Heiko Maas.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALGerman Foreign Minister Heiko Maas attends a meeting with his Polish counterpart Jacek Czaputowicz (not pictured) during his visit in Warsaw Poland, March 16, 2018(photo credit: REUTERS)
The scandal-plagued Jewish Museum Berlin on Saturday awarded a tolerance prize to Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas who permitted his UN ambassador on the same day to condemn Israel seven times at the UN, sparking criticism of the top diplomat.“A Jewish Museum that isn’t Jewish and does exhibitions denying the Jewish roots of Jerusalem gives a Tolerance Award to German Foreign Minister H. Maas who is a pioneer of intolerance in the social media and supports almost every anti-Israel resolution in the UN – Not my humor!” Dr. Rafael Korenzecher , the German-Jewish publisher of the monthly Jewish newspaper Jüdische Rundschau, wrote on twitter.The museum has hosted an academic advocate of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and The Jerusalem Post first reported on a pro-BDS tweet from Berlin’s publicly-funded Jewish Museum in June, leading to the resignations of the museum’s director and spokeswoman in the same month.Germany’s nearly 100,000-member Central Council of Jews tweeted on Tuesday that “Once again, the Federal Republic left Israel out in the rain in the UN. While rockets are fired at Israel, Germany votes seven times against Israel in eight resolutions. Here, the Federal Government failed to stand by Israel at a crucial moment.”Writing on the popular journalist website Die Achse des Guten, the German-Jewish columnist Henryk Broder asked on Wednesday: “Do you also find it strange that the German ambassador to the United Nations raises his hand seven times against Israel while his boss, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, receives the ‘Prize for Understanding and Tolerance’ in the Jewish Museum Berlin and as a fighter against antisemitism and right-wing populism is celebrated? How is one to reconcile one with the other?”Maas, who said he went into politics “because of Auschwitz,” has led a devastating diplomatic offensive against the Jewish state at the UN. In 2018, he authorized his anti-Israel UN ambassador Christoph Heusgen to vote for 16 of 21 anti-Israel resolutions.The Simon Wiesenthal Center announced on Monday that it is considering including comments made by Heusgen in its top ten list of the worst outbreaks of antisemitic and anti-Israel activities in 2019. Heusgen compared the Jewish state to the jihad terrorist movement Hamas.According to the jury’s statement, Maas’s “political and personal engagement against antisemitism and his untiring public advocacy for Jewish life in Germany left a deep impression on the jury composed of the board of the Society of Friends and Sponsors of the Jewish Museum Berlin Foundation.” Berlin’s Jewish Museum has been dubbed the ‘anti-Jewish’ museum by its critics over the years.However, Maas has ignored a plea from Gemany’s Jewish community to outlaw the lethal antisemitic terrorist organization Hezbollah. Maas also permitted diplomats to celebrate the Islamic Republic of Iran’s revolution in February at Tehran’s embassy. Iran’s regime is the leading state-sponsor of terrorism, Holocaust denial and genocidal antisemitism.Maas has also endorsed trade with Iran’s regime to break US sanctions imposed on Tehran for its illicit nuclear activity, support of terrorism and development of a missile program.
When pressed by the Post if Iranian regime calls to wipe Israel off the map are antisemitic, Maas’ foreign ministry spokespeople have stressed the calls to exterminate Israel are merely “anti-Israel rhetoric.”
