Frankfurt Passes Law Against “Antisemitic” BDS

Frankfurt has passed legislation outlawing municipal funding and rooms for BDS. But it is the strong words of the deputy mayor against the BDS movement that should also be heard far and wide.

Uwe Becker

Uwe Becker, the deputy mayor and city treasurer for Frankfurt, who initiated and steered the bill to passage, told The Jerusalem Post: “The BDS-movement does not only strongly resemble the ‘Don´t buy from Jews’ argumentation of former times of the National Socialists, but the movement is built on the same toxic ground and it is poisoning the social climate in the same dangerous way.

BDS strongly attacks the fundamental basis of the legitimation of the Jewish State and takes the detour via antizionism to spread antisemitism.” Beck added:”That´s why we decided to ban any municipal funding or the renting of rooms for any activities of groups or individuals, who support the antisemitic BDS movement. We also instructed our city-owned companies and called upon private landlords to act in the same way.”

The anti-BDS bill will now be sent to the city parliament for a vote. Becker said with today’s backing of the city government, the bill “has already gained the necessary support.” The city parliament is slated to vote on the bill in a few weeks.

Becker announced in early August that he would seek to stop public Frankurt funds for BDS and support of the “antisemitic BDS movement.” Antisemitism under the flag of BDS has no place in Frankfurt, said Becker.

Becker said “the major aim of the BDS movement is the delegitimization of the State of Israel, for which reason they proclaim boycott and spread defamation. BDS activities are not a contribution to a democratic discussion, but they try to intimidate companies, artists, politicians etc.”

He added that “not everybody who supports BDS is an anti-Semite him- or herself, but those who support BDS help to spread antisemitism, because BDS is an antisemitic movement.”

These are particularly powerful words, given German’s history. Here’s hoping other European cities follow suit.

Update: Uwe Becker is clearly a huge supporter of Israel, who is not afraid to tell it like it is. Here are some more powerful words of his, which he penned earlier this year, in a piece entitled Israel through my eyes.

The words of the Israeli Declaration of Independence speak the language of the only democratic state under the rule of law in the Middle East. They guarantee democracy, the upholding of the rule of law and the freedom of opinion, of press and religion. In no other country of the region, people can practice and live their different religions, beliefs and views of the world more open than in Israel and in no other state in the Middle East, Christians, Jews and Muslims live safer than in that state, which is accused of practicing Apartheid. Even the situation of Palestinians is better in Israel than in other countries of the region, which claim themselves as being pro-Palestinian. And in no other country outside the eastern borders of the European Union, life of society is closer linked to the principles of Western values.

Israel is the democratic bridgehead between the Occident and the Orient. It is a country of culture and innovation, of traditions and modernity, a start-up nation, that gets enormous power from generations of women and men who learn to protect their country in the IDF and are taught self-confidence and to believe in their own abilities. The smallest of all nations is standing in loyalty to its values and is keeping their spiritual virtues to have a brighter future, like it is written down in the fifth book of Moses. From the Mediterranean Sea to the Golan Heights, from the sand of the Negev to the (part-time) snowy top of Mount Hermon, from the nonstop city of Tel Aviv to the capital Jerusalem, Israel is a vibrant planet at a compact size, an innovation in itself.

At the same time, it is questioned and threatened in its existence like no other country in the world, from the anti-Semitic BDS-movement to the threats and permanent attacks from terror groups like Hamas or Hezbollah. The answer to this has to be a new and modern Zionism as a common understanding and commitment of all Europeans.

Update: This.

2 thoughts on “Frankfurt Passes Law Against “Antisemitic” BDS”

  1. I hope more and more people are exposed to the hateful BDS farce with each passing day. Its lack of success is also quite clear, given how socially and economically strong Israel is despite the constant (and undeserved) negative Islamist/western left onslaught.

  2. MorganCourtenay

    Well said, Herr Becker. BDS is an anti-Semitic movement: its fraudulence is made manifest in the fact that they have no strategies for a lasting peace in that region. They deny Jewish history, culture, ethnic lineage and so on in the face of glaring evidence that destroys their position. I will be responding to many anti-Israel narratives at my blog here: https://jewishworldcommentary.wordpress.com/

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