Al Jazeera wrote:The German parliament has voted to condemn as anti-Semitic a movement that calls for economic pressure on Israel to end the occupation of Palestinian land, grant Palestinian citizens of Israel equal rights and recognise the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
In a move welcomed by Israel, a majority of legislators in the Bundestag voted on Friday in favour of a motion to label the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as an entity that uses anti-Semitic tactics to fulfil its political goals.
"The argumentation patterns and methods used by the BDS movement are anti-Semitic," read the motion submitted by Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, their Social Democrat coalition partners as well as the Greens and Free Democrats.
The motion, termed "Resisting the BDS movement decisively – fighting antisemitism," calls on the government to "not provide premises and facilities under the administration of the Bundestag to organisations that express themselves in anti-Semitic terms or question Israel's right to exist."
From Al Jazeera
So, the German parliament has condemned the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as anti-semitic. I'm not aware that this will have any repercussion beyond symbolism, but nonetheless raises the question whether BDS is really anti-semitic as portrayed by the conservatives, social democrats, greens and free democrats. I'm ambivalent, I think that some of its language is too extreme and borders anti-semitic sentiment but I'm not convinced this was necessary. But what do you think of this turn of events?
Was the German Parliament right? What is anti-semitism, and does BDS actually qualify?
