Frankfurt Becomes First German City To Ban ‘Antisemitic’ BDS Movement

The city of Frankfurt passed a historic bill on Friday outlawing municipal funding and rooms for BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) activities targeting the Jewish state.

Uwe Becker, the deputy mayor and city treasurer for Frankfurt, who initiated and steered the bill to passage, told The Jerusalem Post: “The BDS-movement does not only strongly resemble the 'Don´t buy from Jews' argumentation of former times of the National Socialists, but the movement is built on the same toxic ground and it is poisoning the social climate in the same dangerous way.

BDS strongly attacks the fundamental basis of the legitimation of the Jewish State and takes the detour via antizionism to spread antisemitism.” Beck added:”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 antisemitic BDS movement. We also instructed our city-owned companies and called upon private landlords to act in the same way.”

The anti-BDS bill will now be sent to the city parliament for a vote. Becker said with today's backing of the city government, the bill “has already gained the necessary support.” The city parliament is slated to vote on the bill in a few weeks.

The city of Frankfurt, which has a population of 730,000 and is Germany's main financial center, became the first municipality in Germany to ban material support for BDS activities. The Bavarian capital Munich is expected to pass a similar anti-BDS measure after the summer break.

Becker announced in early August that he would seek to stop public Frankurt funds for BDS and support of the “antisemitic BDS movement.” Antisemitism under the flag of BDS has no place in Frankfurt, said Becker.

Becker said “the major aim of the BDS movement is the delegitimization of the State of Israel, for which reason they proclaim boycott and spread defamation. BDS activities are not a contribution to a democratic discussion, but they try to intimidate companies, artists, politicians etc.”

He added that “not everybody who supports BDS is an anti-Semite him- or herself, but those who support BDS help to spread antisemitism, because BDS is an antisemitic movement.”

Becker said “Frankfurt is a city with strong Jewish traditions, Jewish life is part of the identity of our city, part of the history of the development as an economical powerhouse, as a city of culture and education – and we are proud of that. And we have a strong and vivid partnership with Israel, that has grown over the past 37 years with a strong friendship, that we have with our sister-city Tel Aviv.”

“For our city, threats towards Israel are being felt as threats towards the people over here too,” said Becker.

Benjamin Weinthal is a research fellow at the nonpartisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies. You can follow him on Twitter @BenWeinthal.

You can follow the Foundation for Defense of Democracies on Twitter @FDD.