German University Students Denounce BDS

The student parliament at the University of Cologne condemned the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in an October 2018 resolution.

The resolution calls the BDS movement “anti-Semitic” and affirms that the student government bodies at the university will combat BDS “by all available means,” including preventing pro-BDS events from being held at the university.

The resolution referred to modern anti-Semitism as taking the form of anti-Zionism.

“There are several attempts to delegitimize the existence of the state of Israel from the fact that the founding of the state has already been ‘unlawful,’” the resolution states. “And followed by the statement that Israel is the authoritarian and racist state par excellence, to assertions denigrating Israel as an ‘apartheid state.’”

The resolution adds, “BDS is a transnational political campaign that wants to isolate the state of Israel economically, culturally and politically, using various anti-Semitic stereotypes. The implementation of these campaign goals – as well as the related requirement that Israel should allow all Palestinians, not only those who left the country, but also all their descendants to ‘return’ – would be the de facto liquidation of the State of Israel.”

According to the BBC, anti-Semitic acts in Germany increased by 10 percent from 2017 to 2018; there was also a 60 percent increase of anti-Semitic violent acts in that same timeframe.

La Croix International, an independent Catholic newspaper, reports that German law enforcement is attributing the increasing anti-Semitism to the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD); however, a plurality of Jews (41 percent) told the European Fundamental Rights Agency believe that Muslim migrants bear the most responsibility for the rise in anti-Semitism.

Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told La Croix that the statistics “reflect a very alarming trend” and require a “much stronger commitment by politicians, police and the justice system with regards to anti-Semitism.”