SPME Petition 29

The decision of the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag) to withdraw the aid and financial support from the BDS network was long overdue and necessary.

BDS is an anti-Semitic campaign.

Objectives, methods and arguments displayed by BDS correspond to the extended IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, which has been adopted in September 2017 by the German

administration. As recent research shows, Israel-related anti-Semitism is the most modern and dominant form of hatred towards Jews and falls under this definition.

BDS does not legitimately criticize Israeli government policy.

On the contrary, BDS is promoting anti-Jewish resentment under the pretext of a supposedly non-violent Palestinian resistance. To claim that the Parliament’s (Bundestag) decision of May 17, 2019, which declares BDS as anti-Semitic and deprives them of public aid and financial support, immunizes the state of Israel from criticism, denies the reality. No other state is so massively and vehemently criticized in public like Israel. The ultimate goal of BDS is the demonization and eventual elimination of the Jewish state. Even the demand for Israel to accept more than five million Palestinian Arabs, thus making the Jews in Israel a minority shows the aim: the destruction of Israel.

BDS is a meeting-point of the whole antisemitic spectrum.

Among the important supporters of BDS are extremist organizations of different political camps. Meanwhile, in addition to left-wing and Islamist groups, right-wing extremist groups have also declared their support for BDS. They use the alleged purely anti-Israel positioning as an ideal disguise of their real intentions.

BDS public self-portrayal as a peaceful protest movement is part of a propaganda strategy to raise donations, public funding, and recognition as charitable as well as to recruit people with good faith.

To portray the BDS campaign as politically legitimate is to misunderstand the expressions of today’s anti-Semitism.

Statements by German and international scholars, who present BDS as legitimate and peaceful, concern us deeply. For they misjudge the most dangerous form of anti-Semitism today, which is directed against the State of Israel as the living sign of Jewish life in the present and the only refuge for persecuted Jews. By seeking arguments in favor of the political legitimacy of BDS, they promote - quite certainly without intention - antisemitic forces throughout society. Especially scholars who deal with the Middle East should be aware of this danger.

We therefore call on the German Government and its ministries to clearly embrace the decision of the Parliament (Bundestag) in every detail in order to offer no space for the BDS campaign.

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