Frankfurt Becomes First German City to Outlaw Municipal Funding of BDS

Frankfurt became the first German city to pass a bill outlawing municipal funding for the BDS movement’s activities. Munich is next in line. 

Frankfurt became the first German city to pass a bill outlawing municipal funding for the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement’s activities.

“The BDS movement does not only strongly resemble the ‘Don’t buy from Jews’ argumentation of former times of the National Socialists[Nazis], but the movement is built on the same toxic ground and it is poisoning the social climate in the same dangerous way,” Uwe Becker, Frankfurt’s deputy mayor and city treasurer, told The Jerusalem Post.

Becker said the BDS movement attacks the fundamental legitimacy of the Jewish state, adding, “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 anti-Semitic BDS movement….We also instructed our city-owned companies and called upon private landlords to act in the same way.”

Frankfurt, which has a population of about 730,000, is the main financial and economic center of Europe’s wealthiest country. Another German city, Munich, is expected to pass a similar measure in the next few weeks. Frankfurt’s anti-BDS bill will now be voted on by the city’s parliament before it can become law.

In May, 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.

By: JNS.org and United with Israel Staff