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German government refuses to label BDS as anti-Semitic
jpost.com ^ | 3/8/15 | NIV ELIS

Posted on 03/08/2015 9:53:16 PM PDT by Nachum

Germany has rejected a definition of anti-Semitism that labels the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) as anti-Semitic.

Responding to a legislative questionnaire released Thursday by leading Green Party MP Volker Beck, the Merkel administration wrote that “there does not exist a general academic definition” of anti-Semitism.

Beck, who heads the German- Israel parliamentary group in the Bundestag, sharply criticized the Merkel administration: “Here the federal government has cowered,” he said. “There is no doubt of the anti-Semitic motivation within the spectrum of the BDS campaign. BDS aims essentially against Jewish Israelis and is therefore anti-Semitic. Whoever aggressively boycotts Israeli goods and people, should also be viewed as anti-Semitic by the federal government.”

The German government said it defined anti-Semitism, as “political, social, racist and religious” hostility toward Jews. The Merkel administration claimed it was not aware that the office of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights took down the modern working definition of anti-Semitism from its website in late 2013.

The European Union’s Agency for Fundamental Rights’ working definition of contemporary anti-Semitism was initially formulated in 2004 at the first Berlin conference on anti-Semitism during the federal administration of the Social Democrats and Green Party. The working definition largely defined double standards targeting the Jewish state as anti-semitic behavior, including the demonization of Israel.

(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...


TOPICS: Egypt; Germany; Government; Israel; News/Current Events; Syria; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: angelamerkel; antisemitic; antisemitism; bds; beck; boycott; bundestag; daesh; divestment; egypt; europeanunion; eussr; gaza; german; germany; greenparty; hamas; iran; isis; israel; israelbds; israelboycott; jordan; lebanon; rop; sanctions; sinai; syria; volkerbeck; waronterror

1 posted on 03/08/2015 9:53:16 PM PDT by Nachum
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To: Nachum
That seems reasonable to me. I'm not at all a fan of the BDS movement, but it's still aimed at a nation. A nation I happen to like. People should have the ability to object to Israels policy.

Labeling something "anti-semetic" in Germany essentially makes it illegal. As much as I disagree with the BDS, I don't think making it illegal is the solution.

I think some, but not all supports of BDS probably are anti-semites.

2 posted on 03/08/2015 9:59:52 PM PDT by Jack Black ( Disarmament of a targeted group is one of the surest early warning signs of future genocide.)
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To: Jack Black

Sorry, but you are wrong. BDS is aimed at Jews. It is open Jew hatred and a meeting ground for Jew haters. It is not even worth debating.


3 posted on 03/08/2015 10:01:11 PM PDT by Nachum (Obamacare: It's. The. Flaw.)
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To: Jack Black

What is there objectionable about Israel’s policy?

I guess you are against the survival of the Jewish state.


4 posted on 03/08/2015 10:02:57 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Nachum; Jack Black

Correct. The way the BDS crowd acts violently against Jews on college campuses speaks for itself.


5 posted on 03/08/2015 10:03:38 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Jack Black

http://antisemitism-europe.blogspot.com/2015/01/uk-bds-protesters-make-nazi-salute-tell.html

Virtually everyone who “objects to Israel’s policy” hates Jews, that’s why they absurdly object to their policy of self defense.


6 posted on 03/08/2015 10:04:11 PM PDT by Impy (They pull a knife, you pull a gun. That's the CHICAGO WAY, and that's how you beat the rats!)
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To: Nachum
The leader of the German Green Party accuses Merkel of anti-Semitism?

That's kind of amazing.

Usually, the Socialists are the main sponsor of anti-Semitism!

Maybe it's a German thing, and involves the bogus characterization of Hitler and the Nazis as “Right Wing.”

7 posted on 03/08/2015 10:36:16 PM PDT by zeestephen
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To: Impy; Jack Black

Thanks for that bookmark-worthy post.


8 posted on 03/08/2015 10:40:49 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Nachum

A crying shame for Germany where the Nazis attacked every little tailor shop or hairdressing salon, etc which happened to have a Jewish proprietor. Germany made Boycotting “Jewish businesses “ into just about a key definitional element of anti-Semitism and the “Finsl solution.” Attacking a person’s legitimate livelihood is an attempt at starving or killing him - no food, you die. Germany did the same against Jewish workers in factories, on farms, at colleges, in medicine, and everywhere else exactly what BDS does today —attacking Innocent Jewish people by trying to deprive them of opportunity to make a living. Of all nations, Germany should be able to recognize this. (My apologies to all the non-prejudiced German people, I’m only trying to say something important about history that we a need to understand - lest we be doomed to repeat past tragedies). Germany has demonstrated some considerable measure of reformation since those terrible times and we can only hope it will correct this erroneous deed now.


9 posted on 03/08/2015 10:42:04 PM PDT by faithhopecharity
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To: Jack Black

It is indeed academically possible to posit a distinction between the two. But in this real world, every BDS type person I’ve ever met is clearly an anti-Semitic Jooo- hater at the core. Very much so. (This includes the socalled Jewish Suicide Syndrome types- Jews or people derived from Jewish families who hate themselves and their fellow Jews,). Walk into a BDS rally and it’s just like the films of Nazi party rallies of the 30’s (except you’re most likely to detect a lot of Arabic and iranian accents)


10 posted on 03/08/2015 10:51:08 PM PDT by faithhopecharity
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To: Nachum
Green Party MP Volker Beck


I'm shocked, genuinely, that its a member of the Green Party criticizing the BDS because the Greens are part of the Left usually in support of BDS

11 posted on 03/08/2015 11:20:24 PM PDT by RginTN
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To: Nachum

Boycott, divest and sanction against Europe.


12 posted on 03/09/2015 1:52:54 AM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

13 posted on 03/09/2015 4:06:29 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)
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To: zeestephen; RginTN

> Beck, who heads the German- Israel parliamentary group in the Bundestag...

It is amazing, but of course it could be just some mealy-mouthed leftists using this as a pretext to get at Merkel’s party. IOW, if they wind up gaining power as a result, the Greens would forget all about this.


14 posted on 03/09/2015 4:10:53 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)
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To: Nachum

What’s strange is that Israel would associate itself, via this parliamentary group, with slime like Beck - a pederast who in the past has advocated for decriminalizing pedo-sex.


15 posted on 03/09/2015 5:01:49 AM PDT by Moltke ("The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution if you only know how to use it.")
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To: Nachum

I hope this doesn’t affect piano wire production in Germany.


16 posted on 03/09/2015 5:19:45 AM PDT by Mashood
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