‘BDS is Anti-Semitic,’ Confirms German Intelligence Agency

The anti-Israel boycott movement is a “new variation of anti-Semitism: anti-Zionist anti-Semitism,” a German intelligence agency concluded. 

By: Max Gelber, United with Israel

A German intelligence agency has deemed the anti- Israel BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) anti-Semitic, saying it is a “new variation of anti-Semitism: anti-Zionist anti-Semitism.”

The Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday that the state of Baden-Württemberg’s intelligence agency, in its May report, wrote that propaganda by the neo-Nazi party Der Dritte Weg (The Third Way) urging boycotts of Israeli products “roughly recalls similar measures against German Jews by the National Socialists, for example, on April 1 1933” when the Nazis used the slogan “Germans! Defend yourselves! Don’t buy from Jews!”

The neo-Nazi organization called Israel a “terror state” and the “Zionist abscess.” The report showed a graphic used by the Third Way showing a Palestinian flag with the words “Freedom for Palestine” over a person whose mouth is covered with an Israeli flag.

Another graphic read “Boycott products from Israel: 729 = Made in Israel,” which refers to the bar code number “729,” an identifier of Israeli-made goods.

Established in 2013 with the participation of former officials of the far-right National Democratic Party and activists affiliated with the Freies Netz Süd (Free Network South), which was banned in 2014, Der Dritte Weg is comprised of radical ethnic nationalists.

The party describes its members as the “conscious neo-Nazi elite,” with the majority classified as very violent.

Party members traveled to Lebanon in March 2017 and lauded Hezbollah’s 2006 war against Israel.

The Third Way’s web page calls for support of convicted Holocaust-denier Horst Mahler.

Labeling BDS as anti-Semitic could have far-reaching consequences for German politicians and organizations that engage in pro-BDS activity, the Jerusalem Post reported.

This is believed to be the first time that a German domestic intelligence agency has labeled BDS as anti-Semitic and a security threat, while German political bodies and politicians at various levels have already recognized BDS for what it really is.

In August, Frankfurt became the first German city to pass a bill outlawing municipal funding for the BDS movement’s activities.

In May 2017, Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) passed a resolution in support of Israel, condemning BDS as anti-Semitic.

In December 2016, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party announced the passing of a resolution declaring BDS anti-Semitic.

The BDS movement promotes financial, academic and cultural boycotts against Israel, ostensibly as a nonviolent struggle against the so-called “Israeli occupation.”

Critics say its activities are a modern form of anti-Semitism and that its true objective is to destroy the State of Israel.