We in the Maccabee Task Force believe that the BDS movement is anti-Semitic.  This movement doesn’t exist to objectively criticize particular Israeli policies.  This movement exists to delegitimize and economically strangle the Jewish state.

Let’s face it — if you can scan this world overflowing with genocide, slavery and oppression and decide to single out Israel for punishment then you’re either a fool or you’ve got a problem with Jews.

In the month of June, support for this proposition came from a surprising source — Germany.  And it came repeatedly.

In late May, the intelligence agency for the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg referred to the BDS movement as a “new variation of anti-Semitism.”

The following week, the intelligence agency for the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate announced that a political party’s call to boycott Israel is an example of “anti-Semitic agitation” with “significant parallels to the anti-Jewish agitation of the Nazis.”

In mid-June, former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters — an outspoken BDS booster — performed in Munich’s Olympic Hall.  Munich’s Mayor Dieter Reiter announced ahead of the concert that “the anti-Semitic propaganda of Roger Waters is neither welcome in Munich nor will it remain unanswered.” He pledged that Olympic Hall would not be rented to Waters in the future.

And in late June, Frankfurt’s Mayor Uwe Becker announced that “artists who support the anti-Semitic BDS movement are not welcome in Frankfurt.”

Such statements are actually nothing new in Germany, where politicians from both left and right have called out BDS for its anti-Semitism in the clearest of terms.  In 2016, for example, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party passed a resolution stating that “BDS promotes anti-Semitism as anti-Zionism; but even dressed up for the 21st century, hate against Jews remains hate against Jews.”

Some have been quick to discount these German insights.  They suggest that Germans might be a bit touchy on the topic given their Nazi past.

Yes, Germans are quite sensitive when it comes to singling out Jews for boycotts.  And that’s precisely the point.  Today’s anti-Semites try to disguise their hate as anti-Zionism or mere criticism of Israel.  It’s a poor disguise, but it often fools those who are unfamiliar with the beast beneath.  The Germans are not so easily fooled.  They know well what anti-Semitism looks like.  They’ve been down this road before.

David Brog

Executive Director